Beautiful Word Devotional #102

The testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

James 1:3–4

If you look back on the times in your life when you grew in Christ the most, you’ll typically see that the circumstances surrounding your growth weren’t rainbows and ponies. No, instead you grew through the crucible of trials. James called this the “testing of your faith,” but there are blessings attached to this testing.

Specifically, today’s Scripture promises that if you rely on the Lord as you walk through trials, you’ll receive from God the gift of perseverance. And when you let perseverance teach you to endure the challenges of life as a follower of Jesus, you will find yourself receiving three more gifts: maturity, completeness, and the abundance of life in Christ.

Perseverance, maturity, and completeness are wonderful blessings—and wouldn’t it be nice if we received them as a result of happy times! That is not God’s design. But there is good news to take away from this reality: the fact that growth comes with trials means that your pain is never wasted.

Lord, when a trial comes, help me trust that you are working in me, amen.