James 1:3

“…because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”

Yesterday we began this new series by considering a rather strange proposition: counting it all joy when you face trials or testing. Today we move on to the results of that testing: perseverance. In the original language this is no passive “grin and bear it” kind of response. Biblical perseverance is active…it is on it’s feet…it leans into the opposing wind.

The Bible makes it perfectly clear that the life of a Christian on earth will be a life of great struggle, turmoil, and testing. Not only do we war against our own fleshly ways, but also against the schemes of the Devil and the ways of the world. The Bible tells us that we are to be more than conquerors (Rom. 8:37), so just sitting around trying not to complain while we are tested is not really an option. The trials come because like a precious metal, God wishes to refine you…make you stronger…more beautiful…more like His Son.

The great bible commentator, William Barclay, hits it on the head:

“It is the courageous acceptance of everything that life can do to us and the transmuting of even the worst event into another step on the upward way.  The keynote of hupomone (perseverance) is not grim, bleak acceptance of trouble…but triumph. It describes the spirit, which cannot only accept suffering, but triumph over it. As the silver comes purer from the fire, so the Christian can emerge finer and stronger from hard days. The Christian is the athlete of God whose spiritual muscles become stronger from the discipline of difficulties.”