Writer, preacher, founder of Crazy Love Ministries and former megachurch pastor Francis Chan recently spoke at Moody Bible Institute and opened up about what he says was a miraculous experience while ministering in a remote village in Myanmar. If you would like to learn more about RightNow Media and our mission to resource the Church with video-based Bible study content, visit us at. In what ways do you demonstrate your steadfast faith in Jesus? What does it look like at home or at work or with your neighbor or family members? Think back to the last time you faltered: Were you silent when you should have spoken up? Did you succumb to peer pressure and actively sin against someone? Whatever happened, confess it to God and pray for wisdom and strength when the next test comes.

Keep in touch with God when people confront you for living according to your faith, and He will get you through. Was it really worth all the pain to stay faithful to Christ? James emphatically says “Yes!” and urges them to trust in God’s wise guidance. When persecution drove the Christians out into the wider world, many of them had good reason to doubt their faith. Have you ever thought about that as the goal of your life?” He says He wants us mature, complete, not lacking in anything. We are able to endure and remain faithful to Him.įrancis Chan said in the video, “What God wants to do is not just to make you happy. Similarly, as God tests us and we go through the heat, we reflect His nature more. for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.” The word for testing ( dokimion) was often used to describe precious metals put through extreme heat to remove impurities, becoming so pure you could see your reflection in it. But James instead tells his readers why trials should provoke joy: “.

Human nature hasn’t changed in two millennia. “The twelve tribes in the Dispersion” at the beginning of the letter described both the Jews who’d been exiled from Israel and also the Christian believers who’d scattered from Jerusalem after persecution settled in to stay.Ī people sent packing due to their faith were familiar with suffering, which makes James’s opening exhortation imminently practical for them: “Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you meet trials of various kinds.” Suffering was part of life, but God wanted His children to greet trials with a counter-intuitive response. If the thought has ever crossed your mind, you’re in good company with James’s audience. If it was the right way, then why would God let you experience suffering or hardship like this? Or you’re worried that you’ve got it all wrong, that Christianity isn’t the right way.

Why would you need wisdom? Maybe you’re facing challenges.

Book of james with francis chan