“Daniel was a nobleman of Israel (possibly a prince) who was taken to Babylon in the first deportation (605 BC), probably while in his early teens (Dan. 1:3, 4). His ministry lasted the entire length of the Babylonian exile, his last dated prophecy being made in 536 BC when he was in his eighties” (Introduction to Daniel). Daniel’s faith was likely tested numerous times over the course of his ministry. When King Nebuchadnezzar threatened to kill all of the wise men in his kingdom, Daniel responded by seeking God’s mercy, praying that he would reveal the meaning of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream to him so that he and companions would not be “destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon” (Daniel 2:5, 13, 18). Later, when a decree was made that whoever prays to any god or man except to the king would be thrown into the den of lions, Daniel “got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before God as he had done previously” (Daniel 6:10).

Daniel was trusting in God when he continued to pray three times as he always had. We are told in Daniel 6:19-22:

Then, at break of day, the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions. As he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish. The king declared to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?” Then Daniel said to the king, “O king, live forever! My God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths, and they have not harmed me, because I was found blameless before him; and also before you, O king, I have done no harm.”

Daniel was pure in his devotion to God. Daniel did not waver when his faith was put to the test.

James said that believers should count it all joy when they meet trials of various kinds, “for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (James 1:3). Steadfastness is a quality of the mind. It has to do with the way we think about our circumstances. The author of Hebrews referred to steadfastness as endurance in Hebrews 12:1 and said that we need to “run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.”

James talked about the need for believers to put their faith into action. We are told in Hebrews 11:1 that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” We are not able to see God, that is why faith is necessary for us to have a relationship with him. When we have the conviction that God exists, we become hopeful about the prospect of living with him forever after we die. James said we shouldn’t just be hopeful about the prospect of living with God after we die, we should live our lives as if he is here with us now.

James said that faith by itself is not enough; you must also have works (James 2:17). James explained what he meant be works when he said, “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” (James 2:19-23).

Trusting in God involves action on our part. “Merely claiming to have faith does not mean that a person possesses saving faith. A faith that is not accompanied by appropriate deeds is no faith at all. It is a mockery, and James calls such faith ‘dead’ (James 2:17). It is ‘faith’ similar to what the demons possess (James 2:19), consisting only of an intellectual belief in the existence of God. Outward actions accompany and demonstrate genuine faith in Christ” (note on James 2:14-19). Abraham demonstrated his faith by doing what God told him to do. God said to Abraham, “take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you” (Genesis 22:2), Genesis 22:3 tells us, “So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.” We can see that Abraham believing God and Abraham obeying God were essentially the same thing.

James referred to the acting out of our faith as faith being completed. The Greek word that is translated completed, teleioo (tel-i-oˊ-o) is associated with spiritual maturity. It is “used in the epistle to the Hebrews in a moral sense meaning to make perfect, to fully cleanse from sin, in contrast to ceremonial cleansing. Moral expiation is the completion or realization of the ceremonial one (Heb 7:19; 9:9; 10:1, 14)” (G5048). James said, “a person is justified by works and not by faith alone” (James 2:24). Works were being “spoken of an external act as manifested in the production of something tangible, obvious to the senses” (G2140). Trusting in God means that we have translated the invisible attributes of God into something tangible that is evidence of our belief in his existence to the people around us.