Finish Line

DEVOTION
JAMES
FINISH LINE

James 1:1-4
1:1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings.
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
NIV
The beginning of James and I will accept this greeting. These trials of many kinds are troubling in the sense it could imply going through good experiences or bad ones in the form of temptations. I am inclined to believe it is the latter which James refers to here. Now I am not so sure about counting it pure joy when I face all sorts of temptations yet that is exactly what I should be considering it. I suppose the more temptations I face and successfully navigate past them it would be a joyous occasion in which I could celebrate in Christ. Those temptations do absolutely test my faith. Yet how is my faith tested when I fail to resist the temptation and give in, even when I don’t really want to? Or do I want to and just use my unwillingness and weakness as an excuse? If I keep failing what kind of perseverance does that develop? I suppose in thinking about running the race, I would never reach the finish line if I fell and never got back up and started running again. So even though I keep failing, or falling I have to get back up and start running again and that would develop perseverance. Is it the more I do this, the more mature and complete I am going to be? Because I fail, I am going to be more mature because I don’t give up, or give in and quit running this race. I will press toward the mark; keep pressing even though I fail all too often. I cannot quit, I cannot give in, even if I have to go back to the starting line and start all over, but praise God I don’t have to do that, he just picks me up where I am and sets me back on the track to run from where I fell. Sometimes I get tired of running, especially with all those people in the stands watching me, waiting for me to fall again, maybe even hoping I do. But I must keep on running because I do want to get to that finish line. The prize if great!