James 1:2-18

²Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, ³knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. ⁴And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

⁵But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. ⁶But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷For that person ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, ⁸being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

⁹Now the brother or sister of humble circumstances is to glory in his high position; ¹⁰but the rich person is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. ¹¹For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so also the rich person, in the midst of his pursuits, will die out.

¹²Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. ¹³No one is to say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. ¹⁴But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. ¹⁵Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it has run its course, brings forth death. ¹⁶Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers and sisters. ¹⁷Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. ¹⁸In the exercise of His will He gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.