We can have faith in many things.  The most important one to have faith in is God.  Often we do not trust someone simply because we do not know them.  We have many experiences in our lives that have taught us not to trust easily.  But we need to trust God to go down the right path in life.

Proverbs 3:5-6   Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

The greatest fear people have since the time they are infants even into their adulthood is abandonment.  Some people fear this loss so much they do not allow people into their lives for fear they will suffer abandonment.   We may also include God in this group, we may not want to let God into our lives because we are afraid we will trust Him and He will abandon us.  This fear is increased when we feel the conviction we have from sin in our lives.  The verse contains the word money but the focus should be God says the word never.  Not for this reason or for any other reason.

Hebrews 13:5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

We are told in the second verse of James, it is not going to be easy and we are also informed that we are to find joy in this fact.   In order to trust anything you must test it.  If we were to set up a rope in order to rock climb we would test it.  We would pull on the rope to make sure it would hold us.  We do not have a lot of faith in anything that we have not tested.  This is much like testing the water of a bath before we submerge our entire body. Having trials in our lives is unavoidable.  But God wants us to know that the trials can be used for our benefit.

James 1: 2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Sometimes we think we shouldn’t have to test our faith in God we should just know that it will be all right and then when we struggle we feel we have failed.  God knows we need our faith tested due to the fact we live in a fallen world.  The fallen world can cause us to doubt everything, we can’t trust: our parents, siblings, friends, employer, children, or the general public.  We have suffered at all of these hands due to the fact we live in a fallen world.

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

God lets us know we will suffer trials but he also lets us know the cause for these trials.  We live in a fallen world we have sinned and others have sinned.

As the book of James begins we see he is speaking the believers he is not speaking to the general public.

James 1:1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings.

The twelve tribes scattered, fear is what scatters people.  When shots are fired into a crowd the people scatter.  They run due to fear.  James wants them to know these trials will be used to their good.  We can still know that James is indeed writing to us.  When we accept Christ as our personal Savior and make Him the Lord of our lives, we have indeed become adopted into this family of the twelve tribes.  We have forgiveness as we are adopted as we read here in Ephesians.

Ephesians 1:4-10 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

A man in danger, dangling from a cliff, sees another man reach over the edge to pull him to safety. He takes his hand trusting him because he has no other option to bring him to safety.  God is reaching down to pull you out of danger in our fallen world so you may walk in unity with Him as He guides your path.  We have to trust God we have no other choice to bring us to safety.

Written by Joyce E Poggensee

Verses referenced  Proverbs 3:5-6, Hebrews 13:5,  James 1: 1-4, Ephesians 1:4-10