Growing Up

Chris Wall • James 1:1-4

James opens his letter with a bold challenge: “Count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds.” He’s writing to believers who are scattered and suffering, yet he calls them to see trials not as interruptions, but as invitations. God uses hardship to grow us up in Christ. Trials test our faith, but they also produce endurance, shape our character, and forge a deeper trust in God. This passage invites us to re-focus our view of hardship, not as something to escape, but as the very workshop where Christ builds us into people who are mature, complete, and lacking nothing.