By Pastor John Brito

I’m sure you know how important tests are and the consequences they carry. Failing a test can mean getting dropped from the football team in high school or college because it kept you from passing the course, which lowered your GPA enough to get you off the team. But not doing well on several final exams can mean the difference in whether you’ll graduate high school or graduate with your class in college or whether you’ll be accepted into a graduate program.

But passing tests isn’t only limited to school. Do you remember passing your driver’s test and the freedom you felt in now being able to drive? That was an important test and one that you prepared for. Passing a test can also have an impact at work. It can determine whether you’ll be qualified to operate heavy machinery and make a lot more money or whether you’ll get that promotion at the office with that significant pay raise.

Tests matter, and the best way to prepare for a test is to study for it. But the hardest tests with the greatest consequences aren’t given in a classroom or taken at work, you face them in life. They don’t test your knowledge, they test your character. It’s hard to prepare for them because you rarely see them coming, but once the test is done you can end up losing or gaining much.

For example, you may lose your job and get bitter and start drinking or using and develop an addiction and lose your family. You may yell at your wife, yet again, but for the last time because she leaves you for failing to control your temper. Or your friend may need you like never before and you’re not there for her because of a fight you had, and the fact that you’re too proud to make things right. So, you lose a great friend. Some tests in life are too important to fail. So always be prepared.

James wrote a letter that made its way into the Bible. He wrote it somewhere in the 40s to 60s in the first century to Jewish believers that lived outside of Israel. Most of them were poor and many had been exploited by the rich. Many had lost their small plot of land, their inheritance, to the rich or became indentured servants to them to pay back the debt they owed them, a debt that may have been incurred by taking loans from the rich for seed or to help them get through a drought or the loss of a harvest.

They were tested, and having lost everything, they became bitter. They fell into worldly practices, gossiped about and fought with other believers, favored the rich, expressed an empty faith and they stopped loving one another like they once did. They failed the test. James wrote this letter to help them find their way back to God.

James writes:

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. (James 1:2-8, ESV)

I’m not at the place yet where I feel joy about facing a test. I haven’t yet told God, “Thanks. Just what I needed, another test in life.” Chances are, neither have you. So why is James telling us to count it all joy when we face a test? To help us find out we’ll need to define some key words in this passage by looking at their meaning in Greek, the original language in which they were written.

Trial (test): An attempt to learn the nature or character of something. Tests reveal the nature of our character.

Various speaks of the manifold nature of the tests. Tests come in many different forms. There just isn’t one type of test.

Verse 3. “For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.”

Testing in the original Greek is the process or means of determining the genuineness of something, testing, means of testing. (The testing of your faith (temptation) produces endurance).

Steadfastness: The capacity to hold out or bear up in the face of difficulty, patience, endurance, fortitude, steadfastness, perseverance.

When our faith is tested, it reveals genuineness of our faith. It’s easy to trust God and worship him at church when everything is going well. But once our faith is tested it reveals our character. But if we hold on to Jesus and endure the test, our faith builds endurance. This is important because pressure is necessary for our spiritual growth. Our faith grows when pressure is applied, and it is perseverance that allows us to withstand that pressure brought on by the tests of life.

Verse 4. “And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

Once steadfastness (endurance, perseverance) runs its course it makes us perfect, and complete, lacking in nothing. Let’s break these down.

Perfect: Pertaining to being fully developed in a moral sense.

Complete: Pertaining to being complete and meeting all expectations, with integrity, whole, complete, undamaged, intact, blameless.

Lacking: Fall short, be inferior, lack. To be/do without, lack, be in need or want (of). To be lacking in nothing means to fall short in no respect. It is to not be deficient in wisdom.

When we hold on to Jesus during one of life’s tests and our faith builds endurance, then our endurance will mature us, will make us complete, meeting all expectations, and lacking nothing. To be lacking in nothing relates to wisdom for verse 5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”

So, what is wisdom and why is it so important?

Wisdom is a gift from God that allows us to discern how to carry out his will in everyday situations. Wisdom lets us see events through God’s perspective. It gives us the capacity to understand and function accordingly.

Colossians 3:9-10 offers us an example of what this looks like: “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”

As I’ve stated above, some tests in life are too important to fail. So, we must prepare for them. But it’s hard to prepare for them because we rarely see them coming. God helps us with this by giving us wisdom, which helps us understand the test we’re facing and shows us how to endure it and what to do to get through it. But James adds this caveat:

Verses 6-7. “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” (ESV)

Double-minded: Pertaining to being uncertain about the truth of something, doubting, hesitating. Divided between faith and the world.

To be double-minded is to have our eyes on Jesus and on the world. This leads to doubt. Our faith needs to be focused on Jesus alone for it to work. God gives his wisdom to those that are single minded in their faith.

You may have gone through a test that life has thrown your way that has devasted you. You’ve failed it and you’re feeling the consequences. You can get back on track with God by asking him to forgive you for any wrongdoing, and by placing your focus on Jesus alone. Ask God to help you pick up the pieces and move forward. Ask him to give you wisdom that you may discern how to live a life that pleases him, and when life sends you a test to help you discern the test and know what to do to endure it and to get though it stronger than ever.

Some tests in life are too important to fail. So always be prepared. Ask God for wisdom and you’ll be ready.