James 1:2-4

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

As written in the ESV Study Bible, trials are designed to produce spiritual maturity and should therefore be counted as joy. Trials are “tests” that challenge faith. When trials occur, one should consider it pure joy—not meaning mere worldly, temporal happiness, but rather spiritual, enduring, “a complete joy” in the Lord who is sovereign over all things, including trials. Testing of your faith defines the meaning of a trial for the Christian: as Jesus was “tested” in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-13), so believers are tested. The Greek “dokimion” which means testing denotes a positive test intended to make one’s faith genuine. The result is steadfastness, a life of faithful endurance amid troubles and afflictions. It leads ultimately to perfection. Believers grow in holiness but are not yet perfected in it; such perfection will be realized only when Jesus returns.

David Mathis wrote in one of his articles about this passage, “Faith does not flourish when it lies untested. It atrophies when it goes unexercised. And eventually, it dies. So, when God loves us with His saving love and gives us saving faith, He commits, because He cares for us, to inject our lives with various trials to train, grow, sweeten, strengthen, and mature what matters most in us. Our ‘various trials in this life are not superfluous to our enduring faith. And they are not just threats to losing our faith. They are one of God’s essential means through which He preserves the faith He has given us and keeps us as His own.”

Further passage: 1 Peter 1:6-7.

Grace and Peace!