James 1:2-8: Faith is Like Riding a Bike

Presented to the Lodge in Tisdale on November 13, 2007
by Captain Michael Ramsay

I have two daughters: One is six; the other is five. Sometimes I go to the park with them. In the winter we take our sled but in the summer we often ride our bikes there. My six year-old has been riding her bike for a couple of years now and has grown quite confident. She is quite proud that she doesn’t even need training wheels anymore. She can race everywhere – zooming past her sister and I. She is an excellent bike rider. She takes some risks; sometimes she crashes but she is a great bike rider and she knows it.

My younger daughter is still learning to ride her bike. She tells us that she is also really fast. She hasn’t been riding as long as her sister and still needs training wheels. She strikes out in faith but sometimes – after a crash or getting stuck too often – she just wants to quit. She hasn’t developed the perseverance that comes from faith that she can ride her bike ‘really fast.’

My elder daughter, on the other hand, knows that even if she falls off she can get up again and get going. She has faith and this gives her confidence to preserver with her learning and as a result her ability to ride her bike grows…

This is sort of the same scenario that is playing out in the church at Jerusalem at the time of James’ writing his letter that we read from earlier.

They know that God is all-powerful, that He knows everything, and that His will will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 6:10). They should know that he wants every good thing for them (Phil 1:6) just as everything He created was indeed good (Gen. 1:21) and as it says in our text today that all good things are from God (James 1:17) BUT they are experiencing trials now and they may be lacking some of the faith that comes from perseverance.

In this letter, James is asking them to persevere so they will get better at riding their bikes of faith and have the trust that they will be okay. They, in Jerusalem, are not necessarily so sure here that they will be. The trials here are experienced much like someone new to a bicycle. They have the opportunity to either waver and give up or to persevere and grow in faith.

A specific trial they are experiencing in Jerusalem now is persecution and through that a testing of their faith. - here is a very important point actually from James 1:13-14 – God tests them. He does not tempt them. “For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.” So, what’s the difference between testing and tempting? This: in a fair test you can pick any answer. When God tests, he wants us to pick what is right but he lets us choose. Temptation, on the other hand, is when we are faced with that test and the devil or our own evil desires try to make us pick the wrong answer.[1]

Today in Tisdale, we are still tempted by our own evil desires and we need the faith that comes from perseverance. What are some of our temptations? Maybe a piece of cake that violates a specific diet of ours; maybe too much TV – not just the shows on it but the time that it can take up that would be better spent doing something for God .

What other of God’s tests can the devil try to use to tempt us away from our faith? Maybe pride that we can do things on our own. This is a bad one…I heard an interesting point in a sermon a year ago or so[2] – has everyone seen those WWJD, What would Jesus do, bracelets? They are a great proclamation of our faith. The preacher suggested that it would be even better if they instead read, “Jesus, what should I do?” This would put the emphasis on God’s power to solve our problems rather than our own ability to emulate Him.

There are many other trials in our life through which the devil may attempt to tempt us away from God. We can value our family, friends, or the things that the Lord has given us stewardship over more than we value the Lord himself. We can spend so much time doing other things that we neglect God and our Bible study. There are many ways that we can be tempted to waver on our bicycles of faith.

You see, the less time we spend on our bikes of faith, the less confident we feel. But as we are exercising our faith -praying everyday and noticing what God is doing on a daily basis; as we are reading the Scriptures, our confidence grows and we won’t start to falter or doubt. We will grow in faith instead.[3]

This is good news for us. James tells us that these tests that are from the Spirit are actually good news. It is these tests that develop our perseverance and he says, 1:4, “perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James is encouraging the believers in Jerusalem. They have some serious trials: everything they know, their jobs, even their very lives are in jeopardy. These are serious trials[4] and James is encouraging them through these for it is through these trials from God that they will indeed be strengthened so that they can resist the devil and the gain wisdom needed to flee all temptation (cf. James 4:7; 2 Tim 2:22).

And about this strength, this wisdom to resist and flee temptation, there is even more good news, James 1:5 records that “if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” God will provide the wisdom. God will do it. The more we face the trials, the more our perseverance and indeed our faith itself will grow. We need not falter. We need not doubt. We need not necessarily ask, “What would Jesus do?” We just need to stay the course. We need to persevere. We need to finish the test and then, through a non-wavering faith, they will pass.

We just need to persevere. We need not falter. We need not doubt. We need not scramble around trying to figure out exactly what Jesus would do in every situation. He is here. We can ask him; we can persevere. The more that we practice, the more we will believe. The more our deeds reflect our claims, the stronger we will be.

It is like My youngest daughter, she knows she can ride her bike – and fast. Her faith is still growing though. As she perseveres more and more and is picked up off the ground and then picks herself off the ground and then one day she will be ready to take her training wheels off even, like her sister.

It is the same with us here as we persevere in our Bible study, in our prayers, in our faith. As we persevere, our faith grows. These tests (friends, TV, food, whatever they happen to be) are not a threat. Passing them is a means by which God give us the strength to carry on. As we let the Lord take us through trials our perseverance is developed, our faith is developed. These tests are what God uses to draw us closer to Him. So I encourage you then to persevere. Turn off the TV sometimes, if you need to –you can read your Bible instead. Persevere. Avoid gossip and idle talk – pray instead. Persevere. Spend time with God and persevere.
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[1] Ex: when the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness: The Spirit led him to the test but the devil provided the temptation (Matt. 4:1-11, Luke 4).
[2] Captain Gord Taylor. Salvation Army, Maple Creek, Summer 2006.
[3] James 1:7-8: “He who doubts is like a wave on the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord….”
[4] Their service of the Lord was leading to “brother being pitted against brother” cf. Mark 13: 12-13.