James 1:12-18 | Faith That Moves Series | 9.28.25

Follow Along with the Message

Pray for open minds and hearts, asking God to reveal His character to you, that you would come away from this text with a better understanding of who He is and what He desires for you, because He loves you.

1. Todd told us that James wrote with a pastor’s heart, to reveal to the readers both then and now that God is deeply committed to maturing our faith, and that there is never a time when God is not at work to transform us. 
• Why does God want to change us? Does this mean that He doesn’t love us “the way that we are?” How is God working to transform you right now? Do you feel stuck or resistant to His call for you to change?

1. As James writes to encourage his readers to remain steadfast through hardship, he also warns them not to mistake trial for temptation. In every trial, there is always a temptation: to give up, to turn away, to doubt God’s goodness. 
   • Todd’s examples were: financial trials can tempt us to cheat, relational conflict can tempt us towards anger, and loneliness can tempt us to compromise. You can also review the split road map that he showed, where one leads to life, and the other leads to death.
• Discuss the difference between a trial and a temptation, and how the outcome of following each road impacts us. 

1. While God may test us to refine our faith, He never tempts us to sin. Trials come from God to develop our faith, temptations come from Satan to destroy our faith. Jesus could be tested, but he was never drawn towards temptation. 
• Can we ask God why trials happen to us? Can we blame God for trials?
• Remember that no matter the length, difficulty or realness of the temptation, it does not change who God is. He is always good. His holiness remains intact. How can this encourage you?

1. When our God-given desires become detached from God’s will, our selfish desires become ultimate, and we look inward instead of upward. Satan knows exactly what will lure and entice each individual, and he uses that knowledge to tempt us to sin. Bonhoffer said, “Satan does not fill us with hatred for God, but with forgetfulness of God.” 
• How can we fight against this tendency to forget the goodness of our God, especially in the midst of trials, to have victory over temptation?

1. James lifts our eyes to God. He tells us what God is like: unchanging, loving, generous, and good. God is happy to give us every good and perfect gift, and so anything else that we would be tempted to choose fails in comparison to what only He can give.
• Confess to the Lord any ways that you have forgotten Him in the midst of a trial, given into temptation, or looked inward instead of upward. Know that He is quick to forgive you because He loves you! (Psalm 86:5, 1 John 1:9)