How To Pass The Tests Of Life

How To Pass The Tests in Life

Stand and lift up your bible and repeat after me.

This is my Bible.

I am what it says I am.

I can do what it says I can do.

I am going to learn how to be what it says I can be.

Today I will learn more of the word of God.

The indestructible, never ending, living word Of God.

I will never be the same.

I will never be the same.

In Jesus Name

Say, “Hello” to your brothers and sisters before you sit down.

Today we’re talking on this subject: “How do I Pass the Tests of Life.”

Open your Bibles to James Chapter 1 and say. “Amen” when you are there.

Let’s read the first 4 verses.: “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations;”—now, this word temptations means, “tests,” or “trials”—“knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing” (James 1:1–4).

I heard of a young man who had taken one of his tests at college and he’d made a zero. He went in to see the professor, and he argued with the professor. He said, “Professor, I don’t think I deserved this zero.” And the professor said, “Neither do I, son, but it was the lowest grade I had.”

Now, maybe you are failing just that miserably in the tests of life. God does have some tests, some examinations, and we’re going to have to learn how to make a passing grade. And, I hope some of us today will learn how to make an A plus.

Several things I want to share about the tests of life. I would like you to notice the fact that there is temptation.

Notice in verse 1: “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting” (James 1:1). Just note that word scattered. And, here God is talking to people who have endured persecution. They were being hounded and hunted, and they were wanderers on the earth.

Now, when James says, “to the twelve tribes,” he’s not talking literally; he’s talking figuratively. He is comparing the New Testament saints to the Old Testament saints. He is comparing the Church to Israel and Judah. And, just as Israel and Judah had been dispersed, they’d been torn away from their friends and from their country. And, just as Israel and Judah had suffered indignities of a conquered people, starving and friendless under the heel of a cruel oppressor, he is using that as an example and as a figure of speech to describe the Church.

The Book of James is really a book that is written to Christians everywhere. When he says, “to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad,” he’s just speaking to Christians everywhere. This is to the Christians wherever they may be who suffered trials and temptations and tribulation. This is God’s Word to us. You are thinking, “Well, I’m not scattered abroad.”

We are. This world is not our home; we’re just passing through.

Let’s read verse 2: “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations” (James 1:2). Notice he doesn’t say, “If you fall into diverse temptations.” It’s not an if; it’s a when. And, if you’re a Christian, or if you’re not a Christian; If you’re saved, if you’re lost; I can tell you one thing you can expect in life: difficulty. How’d you like that? Just difficulty.

I don’t care who you are, there are going to be trials in life.

It does not matter if you’re a Christian. Christianity will not make you immune. All people fall into diverse trials and temptations, Christians included.

Persecution, and trials, and testing is a part of life. They are unavoidable. It is universal. And it is inevitable.

Verse 2: “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations”

This word testing and trials may mean just simply a test like you test an automobile, or you test an airplane, or you test a new medicine. And so, that’s one kind of testing. This kind of testing is sent by God to cause you to stand.

But, there’s another kind of temptation—another kind of testing—and, that’s sent by the devil. And, the word temptation not only is used in the sense of a trial or a test. It’s also used as a solicitation to evil, as a tempting to sin.

Now, this is not sent by God. “God tempts no man with evil. Neither can He be tempted with evil” (James 1:13). This is sent by the devil. And, the difference between the two is this: Trials are sent by God to cause us to stand. Temptation to sin is sent by the devil to cause us to stumble.