James 1:3-4 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing.
This is a promise of sanctification: the process that the Spirit gradually works in us to bring us closer to the holiness and perfection that God has already declared us to be because of the work of Christ. ”Become what you are!”
Sanctify means ”make holy.” Or, as James says, we will be ”perfect and entire, lacking nothing.” Of course, we will never reach holiness and perfection in this life, but we will be perfect and entire after we are transformed through physical death. However, the promise is that we will grow closer to that perfection as we grow in the faith.
Specifically, one aspect of the fruit of the Spirit is promised in this verse, and that is patience. Patience works perfection. The Spirit uses the Word and the ”school of experience” to work patience. We can’t learn patience unless we have something to be patient about. Therefore, in verse 2 He says, ”Count it all joy” when you fall into various trials, testings, and temptations, because the trial is producing patience in your character. Romans 5:3: ”We rejoice in our sufferings.” for sufferings produce endurance, character, and hope, for ”God’s love has been poured into our hearts.” And we can all use more of that. Therefore, rejoice!
So trust the promise when you are going through a difficult time, because the Lord will use that short time to work in you something permanent that will be a part of your character forever. Like patience. We don’t have to ask for patience, since God will give us enough opportunities to learn it. So in a trial, we don’t complain; instead we pray and rejoice.