Run to Win · James 1:2–4 · Week 3
In week three of Run to Win, Pastor Mark English of Christian Life Church in Bensalem, PA, teaches from James 1:2–4 and Romans 5:3–5 on running with endurance. Trials build spiritual muscle, endurance produces maturity, and hope fuels the long run. The runners who finish aren’t the fastest. They’re the ones who refuse to quit.
Key Highlights
What to Remember
You don’t mature in comfort. You mature in trials.
Whatever you train your eye to see, you will see.
God doesn’t cause every trial, but He uses them.
The runners who finish aren’t the fastest. They’re the ones who refuse to quit.
Run to Win · Week 3
Don’t Miss the Fuel Station
People live one of two ways: by default or on purpose. Living by default sounds like, “This year looks a lot like last year.” Then another Monday comes, and another, and ten years later we wonder whether our life has made any difference. God created us for more.
In week one, we talked about running with intention. Last week, we talked about throwing off the weight. This week is about endurance: “I’m not quitting, even when it gets tough.”
Marathon runners know that somewhere around miles 18 to 20, the body’s fuel runs low. Muscles tighten, and some runners “hit the wall.” Many runners say they struggled because they skipped a fueling or hydration station along the way. The race is often lost in the middle, not at the end.
If you never fuel your life, you’ll run out of energy and end up on the side of the road.
If you only get in the Word on Sunday, you’re spiritually malnourished.
James 1:1–2
Consider It Pure Joy
James, the brother of Jesus, wrote one of the earliest letters in the New Testament “to the twelve tribes scattered among the nations” (James 1:1). These believers had lost homes, relationships, and security. You’d expect him to begin with, “Hang in there.” Instead he wrote:
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds.”
James 1:2
That’s not what we want to hear in a trial. But James isn’t minimizing their pain. He’s helping them see something bigger. Trials don’t feel good, but God does something powerful through them. Politics can’t do that. New laws can’t do that. Only God can take something bad and turn it for good.
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Romans 8:28
Years ago, a mentor told Pastor Mark: “Whatever you train your eye to see, you will see.”
The longer we focus on the bad, the longer the trial has dominion over us.
God knows everything about your life. He doesn’t cause every hardship, but He uses them. When a child comes home hurt by cruel words, a loving parent says, “Don’t believe what they say. Believe what God says about you.” That’s what God’s Word does for us. Instead of letting a layoff spiral into imagining the worst, we fix our eyes on what God says.
Point 1 · James 1:3
Trials Build Spiritual Muscle
“Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.”
James 1:3
Trials aren’t meaningless. They’re training. The word “testing” pictures metal refined by fire. When gold is heated, impurities rise to the top and are scraped away. The fire doesn’t damage the gold. It purifies it.
- What we trust: where we’ve really placed our faith
- Where our hope is: and how deeply our faith is rooted
- Healthy relationships: who stays to help carry the burden (Galatians 6:2)
Trials reveal, and then they refine.
“Perseverance” literally means to remain under pressure. It isn’t passive resignation, like “it is what it is.” It’s active endurance. When Pastor Mark and Christie lost their daughter, he determined that the enemy would regret ever coming against his family. He refused to quit.
The English family’s young bulldog has one rule: once she grabs hold of something, she doesn’t let go.
We need bulldog faith.
When you get saved, burn every bridge back to your old life. There is no plan B. Joseph endured betrayal, false accusations, and prison for years, yet he never let go of God’s dream. Those years weren’t wasted. They were training, and Joseph became second only to Pharaoh in Egypt.
“Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance.”
Romans 5:3
God builds endurance in us not to destroy us, but to strengthen us to win. Where is God strengthening your faith through pressure right now?
Point 2 · James 1:4
Endurance Produces Maturity
“Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
James 1:4
We expect new believers to be spiritual babies, so we feed them, help them, and encourage them when they fall. But if someone has attended church for 20 years and still doesn’t read the Word, share their faith, or serve, they haven’t grown up. The closer you get to Jesus, the more you want to do what He does.
“Mature” means fully developed and brought to its intended purpose. It doesn’t mean perfect. It means whole in Christ. Some things can only be learned in difficult seasons:
- God is faithful when life is uncertain.
- God is present when you feel alone.
- God is strong when you are weak.
Trials make us rely more on Jesus and less on ourselves.
Moses fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian and spent 40 years in the desert. But in the wilderness, he met God. When he finally stood before Pharaoh, his message was, “Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness” (Exodus 5:1). Sometimes the wilderness is exactly where God meets us.
The disciples were impulsive and often confused. Peter was quick to speak and slow to listen. But by the book of Acts, he was a bold spiritual leader. Endurance had done its work.
You don’t mature in comfort.
You mature in trials.
Our flesh is drawn to comfort, and few people on earth are as comfortable as we are. Meanwhile, believers around the world are persecuted for their faith and keep going because their eyes are on Jesus. Pastor Mark’s goal isn’t to prepare us for comfort. Heaven is comfort. It’s to build faith rooted so deeply that nothing could make us deny Jesus.
“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.”
1 Corinthians 13:11
God’s goal isn’t to make us comfortable. It’s to make us mature. What is God developing in your character through the season you’re in right now?
Point 3 · Romans 5:3–5
Hope Fuels the Long Run
“We know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
Romans 5:3–5
Notice where the progression ends: hope. Hope is the confident expectation that God is working even when we can’t see it. It’s what keeps a runner moving when the finish line is still far away. Scripture calls hope an anchor for the soul (Hebrews 6:19).
Pastor Mark’s first year of college was eight hours from home, with no FaceTime and no friends yet. He was so homesick that he would look at the moon and think, “That moon is over my house.” So every night he walked across campus reading Psalms and Proverbs. God’s Word became his anchor.
As long as he was in the Word, his emotions didn’t dominate him.
One of the quickest ways to fill your “hope meter” is to serve. You weren’t created to be a volunteer. You were created to be a servant, in the image of Jesus. That’s exactly why the enemy fights it with, “You don’t have time.” Serving isn’t about what you do for the church. It’s about God building His nature in you.
A woman in our church ran a marathon and hit the wall with about four miles left. A support truck pulled up to the last few runners and offered them a ride to the finish line, with a medal. Through her tears she said, “I’m not getting on the truck.”
The world says, “Just be a good person. Get on the truck.” Keep running.
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
2 Timothy 4:7
You aren’t a runner because you paid the entry fee and pinned on a number. You’re a runner by running.
Galatians 6:9
Stay in the Arena
Are you seeing hardship as punishment or as preparation? God is always building capacity in the life of a believer. The giants Pastor Mark faces today would have overwhelmed him at 19. But God has built endurance, and His past faithfulness gives confidence for today. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).
Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president, was famously tough. He was once shot while campaigning and still delivered his speech. In 1910, in Paris, he addressed a culture of criticism without participation in what became known as “The Man in the Arena”:
“It is not the critic who counts … The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena … who strives valiantly … who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”
Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
It’s easy to criticize from the sidelines. Choose to stay in the race God has called you to run. And for believers, here’s the good news: if we stay in the race and refuse to quit, we don’t fail. We receive the prize. What the enemy meant for harm, God turns for good.
“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Galatians 6:9
If you feel like you’re at mile 20 and have hit the wall, be refueled. You’re not running alone. God is “an ever-present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1), and the Holy Spirit comes alongside to strengthen you. Lean on others in prayer, and lift your eyes above the crowd to Jesus, just as He did at Lazarus’s tomb (John 11:41). Every race starts with a decision. Jesus still says, “Come, follow me.”
Questions About This Message
James 1 Explained
What does “consider it pure joy” mean in James 1:2?
James wrote to scattered believers who had lost homes and security. He wasn’t saying trials feel good or minimizing their pain. He was helping them see something bigger: God uses trials to build perseverance and mature faith, and only God can turn something bad for good (Romans 8:28).
How does the testing of faith produce perseverance?
The word “testing” pictures metal refined by fire. Heat brings impurities to the surface so they can be removed, purifying rather than damaging the gold. Trials reveal what we trust and where our hope is, then refine our faith so we can remain steady under pressure (James 1:3).
What does perseverance mean in the Bible?
The Greek word means to remain under pressure. It describes someone who doesn’t quit when circumstances become difficult. Biblical perseverance isn’t passive resignation but active endurance, holding on to God’s promises with determined, “bulldog” faith.
What does “mature and complete” mean in James 1:4?
“Mature” means fully developed and brought to its intended purpose. It doesn’t mean perfect; it means whole in Christ. Perseverance must finish its work, because some lessons, such as God’s faithfulness, presence, and strength, are learned most deeply in difficult seasons.
How does suffering lead to hope in Romans 5:3–5?
Paul describes a progression: suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. This hope does not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Hope is the fuel that keeps believers running.
Fuel your faith.
Train your eyes.
Hold on like a bulldog.
Refuse to quit.
Life Group Discussion
Reflect and Respond
Use these questions to continue the conversation, reflect honestly, and let the message move beyond information into transformation.
You’re not a runner by standing at the start line.
You’re a runner by running.
