Hello and welcome to ActivatedThroughChrist,

For the next three weeks both Chloe and I will be leading you through James, discussing
what we have learned from each passage and hoping to help you grasp a larger
understanding of who you are and who God is activating you to be.

Below is our passage for today, which will be broken down within this lesson for further
review.

This lesson is led/written by Mairyn Corey and Chloe Corey:

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among
the nations: Greetings.
Trials and Temptations
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking
anything.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding
fault, and it will be given to you.
6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a
wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
9 Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position.
10But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower.
11 For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is
destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business.
12 Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person
will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.
13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by
evil, nor does he tempt anyone;
14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and
enticed.
15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives
birth to death.
16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.
17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly
lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all
he created.
Lesson One: breaking you down to build you back up.

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

The Strongest trees are always the ones that face the most trials in life:

Did you know that if a tree never experienced deadly winds that it would literally topple over?

The reason for this is that God designed heavy winds to beat down against the tree in such a
way that the tree would be forced to dig its roots even deeper into the ground in order to support
the heavy weight of its trunk and limbs, even when experiencing the most powerful winds. In
many situations the trees limbs may be severely damaged, the trunk may be lifted from the
ground, the tree may be split in two, but the most important part is that the tree learns from its
weakness and grows to be a stronger tree than before.

Chloe and I often tell each other, “Yeah this is hard, but this is God breaking you down in order
to build you back up. Brick by brick he takes you down, and brick by brick he builds you back
up.” God is like the wind against even the strongest trees, urging you to just dig your roots
deeper, so that no matter what storms beat against you can stand tall through even the hardest
trials. Knowing this gives you a completely different perspective of the incredible works of God.
Many people view hardship as God neglecting you, abandoning you, punishing you when really
they could be seeing the storm as an opportunity for God to be reshaping them to be more like
him.

So do not be tempted to believe that God lies when he says he does everything for our good
and his glory, and rather take joy in knowing that your hardships have been placed in your life
in order to break you down to build you back up again.

Lesson two:The Wave of doubt.

5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding
fault, and it will be given to you
6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a
wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
9 Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position.
10But the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower.
11 For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is
destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade away even while they go about their business.

Are the tree of strength or the wave of doubt?

You either allow God to work in your heart, breaking you down to build you back up, or you hide
and slunk away whenever things get tough, never learning to dig your roots deeper. In the
passage above, James 1:5-11 says to ask God for his wisdom, and that if you do you should do
it without doubting him. Faith is never knowing if God will, it is believing that God can, and
trusting that he will do what is best for your good and his Glory. Otherwise, you are like a wave
of doubt in the ocean, tossed by wind and storm, rather than a strong faithful tree that can
withstand the most constructive weather due to its deep roots. So, who are you right now? Are
you living in doubt of God, or are you planting in your roots preparing for the storms ahead?

Lesson three: Persevering through evil desires.

12 Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person
will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

For as long as I can remember I have always had times when I felt discouraged by something I
was doing beocuase it ended up being, “Hard”. Infact, when things were even just a little hard I
would give up on them because it no longer was “Fun”, and also beocuase it would take longer
than I wanted to work on it for. You can only imagine how school went for me having a
perspective like this, “Well I just won't do my math because I don't like doing it/its to hard”... that
excuse never worked with mom! Everything that I did was the least amount of work possible,
just sloppy. I had absolutely no perserverences. Even now being 15 years old I struggle with
perseverance, I still get discouraged when I realize this huge idea I have to serve the Lord
cannot be done overnight, or without effort, or even by myself, for instance, my sister is helping
me put this lesson together because it ended up being more than I could handle in one day! Yay
to sister power! But God encourages us to persevere…. Why?
You can imagine yourself as a tree and that the trials you face are the wind hitting against you.
Remember how I said if a tree never faced trials of wind that it would eventually topple over?
Same with you, if you don't persevere through trials how will you ever learn to face the even
larger storms that come your way?
God doesn't send winds our way to let us pass the test and move on to an easier life. He sends
winds our way so that we might dig our roots even deeper in order to withstand the hurricanes
of life headed our way next.

13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by
evil, nor does he tempt anyone;
14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and
enticed.
15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives
birth to death.

A friend of my of my family told me once, “There are two types of thoughts. Thoughts from god
and thoughts from satan, you have to be able to identify which are which”.

Lesson Three:
This whole section of scripture seems like an ocean. We are trying to swim to God, and get
fulfillment from the gifts he gives us, but that there are temptations on either side of us. The
shifting shadows may seem so much easier to get "fulfillment" from, but it won't be perfect and
true. He says "Don't be deceived", which can be hard, but try to stay on the path the Lord has
paved for us.