James Bible Study Week 1 | Joy in the Testing of Your Faith

🌷 Week One Reading Plan

This week we'll begin by getting to know James and then work our way slowly through James 1:1–12.

Day 1 — James 1:1
Day 2 — Review of the Book of James
Day 3 — James 1:2–4
Day 4 — James 1:5–8
Day 5 — James 1:9–12

Don't feel like you need to rush.

Read the passage more than once. Notice repeated words. Ask questions. Write things down. This is exactly what we're going to practice together using our R.O.A.D. Bible Study Method. You can learn more about that here.

📖 Week One Memory Verse

James 1:2–4

This week's memory passage reminds us to look beyond the trial itself and toward what God is producing through the testing of our faith.

Download your FREE memory cards, then print it out and, place it somewhere you'll see it throughout the week, write the passage in your journal, or spend a few minutes each day working on memorizing it.

Today, we begin! 💗

Ladies, I am so excited to officially begin our journey through the book of James: A Living Faith in Action together!

James doesn't ease us into this letter.

Almost immediately, he brings us face-to-face with something every one of us understands: trials.

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds...” James 1:2

How can we possibly consider trials joy? That's where we're headed this week.

James isn't telling us that difficult circumstances are enjoyable. Instead, he points us toward what God can produce through them—steadfastness, maturity, wisdom, and a faith that learns to trust Him.

This is where our study begins: not simply with what we say we believe, but with what our faith looks like when life gets hard.

And that is exactly why our theme for James is:

A Living Faith in Action.

🛣️ Grab Your Bible —

We're Getting on the R.O.A.D.

Throughout James, we're going to practice slowing down and studying God's Word using our New COFM R.O.A.D. Bible Study Method:

R — Read
Read the passage carefully and more than once.

O — Observe
What does the passage actually say? Look for the Who, What, When, Where, How, and Why.

A — Analyze
Dig deeper. Look at context, keywords, cross-references, and what Scripture teaches us about the passage.

D — Direction
What direction does God's Word give us? What should we believe, change, remember, or put into practice?

You don't have to be a Bible scholar to learn how to study God's Word.

We're learning together. 💗

💗 This Week's Focus

There is a progression in this week's passage that I don't want us to miss.

Trials → Testing → Steadfastness → Maturity

James reminds us that the difficult places in our lives are not outside of God's ability to work.

We may not understand what God is doing while we're walking through a trial. We may feel tired. We may have questions. We may not know what comes next. And James tells us what to do when we don't know:

Ask God for wisdom.

That's something I want us to carry with us throughout this first week.

Instead of only asking,

"Lord, how do I get out of this?" perhaps we also begin asking,

"Lord, what do You want to teach me while I'm here?"

"How do You want me to respond?"

"Give me wisdom to walk through this faithfully."

This is where living faith begins to become visible in real life.

💻 Join Us LIVE This Week!

Our A Walk in the Word LIVE Bible study meets on Tuesdays at 1:00 PM Eastern.

Come a few minutes early! Fellowship begins around 12:50 PM ET, and we stay for a little fellowship afterward as well.

The Zoom link and LIVE study information are shared inside our private Circle of Faith Ministries Facebook Group.

*Don't worry, cameras do not have to be on during the LIVE and microphones are off. You may have your camera on if desired.

If you're studying James with us and haven't joined the group yet, we'd love to have you.

🌷 Everything You Need for the James Study

I've created one place where you can find all of our James study resources, including the:

Reading Plan • Memory Verse Cards • R.O.A.D. Map Resources • Bookmarks • Scripture Wallpapers • Study Playlists • Weekly Study Information

VISIT THE JAMES STUDY PAGE

Let's Begin 💗

Before you move on with your day, take a few minutes to open your Bible.

Read James 1:1. Then pray.

Ask the Lord to prepare your heart for everything He wants to show you during these next seven weeks.

We're not racing through another book of the Bible. We're slowing down. We're learning to study His Word.

And we're asking God to take what we learn and make it visible in the way we live.

Same God. Real Life. Let's Walk It Together. 💗

— Jen