Completion

James 1:2-4

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.

Mature and complete …

I have only owned one new car (truck) in my life – the rest were preowned – and that was a Toyota truck. It had the nice, new car smell, it was clean and shiny. It ran well – just like it was supposed to. It came off the assembly line as a finished product – I didn’t have to do anything to make it work after we got it – it was ready to go. It had all it’s parts – they didn’t leave anything out that I could tell at least. My father in law is still driving it. I enjoyed that truck.

In today’s verses- James writes about what it means to be mature and complete as a Christ follower. The word for “mature” was a word that meant finished. Sometimes it is translated as “perfect” but what it refers to is that something or someone has gone through a process and that has completed that process. The word used for “complete” meant that the necessary parts ae in place.

That’s what trials/tests do for us. They “mature” us… they “complete” us. They build our faith and they make us into the people God wants us to be. Without tests/trials we would be the equivalent of 98 pound spiritual weaklings – blown away by the slightest of ocean breezes.

So live it out – face your trials/tests with a quiet confidence (pure joy) because God is going to do something in you only He can do … complete you!