Why God Tries Your Faith

James 1:3-4

Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

Nobody likes trials, but everyone needs them if they are going to become the tool God needs them to be so He can use them. You will notice God says that the trying of your faith worketh patience. That word patience is what most of us don't like. We don't like being patient because we want everything now. However, the working of patience is God’s timeline that produces a perfect result. The purpose of patience is to produce a believer that is perfect and entire, wanting nothing. The key to these verses is, But let patience have her perfect work. The word perfect means complete and flawless. In other words, if you quit before patience has done her work, the trial will not make you what God intended for it to make in you.

Let me illustrate this truth in another way. Imagine someone going to medical school to become a surgeon only to quit after a few years. Let’s say the same person starts their practice and fraudulently says they are a surgeon. Because they didn't complete medical school and undergo their internship, they would hurt, if not kill people when they went into surgery because they were not patient to learn everything they needed to help people get better. Their intent was to help people, but they hurt people by not being patient enough to finish medical school or to let medical school have her perfect work in their lives.

Sadly, many believers have hurt the cause of Christ because they did not let a trial do its perfect work in their lives. Too many run ahead of God with a desire to help people, but they were not patient enough to wait for God’s timing and for trials to complete the work God needed. Oh, they may be doing what God initially intended for them to do, but they are not doing it in His timing because they did not complete the trying process God sent them through to make them into the tool God needs them to be.

Being patient through trials is important to reveal the weaknesses in your faith. You find out a lot about yourself when life’s trials put their pressures on your life. It is during the pressure of trials that you see the cracks in your Christian character, and by seeing those cracks, you can work on those weak areas so that you can become a better person for Christ. If you quit before the cracks are revealed, those cracks will come out at the worst time, and they will hurt the very people you are trying to help.

Moreover, patience in trials forms you into the tool God needs you to be. Anything that has been formed had to endure pressure to be conformed into the shape that was needed. You will never be conformed into the image of Christ without letting patience have her perfect work in your trials. If you quit before the trials had their perfect work in your life, people will see a broken believer and not the image of Christ. People don't need to see a broken you, but they need to see Christ through you, which is only accomplished by allowing patience to have her perfect work.

My friend, be patient with your trials. God is making something great out of you, and His finished product is what helps you to be a great tool to help many. If you let the trials do their work, you will have every tool you need to face whatever comes your way as you serve God.