If God is sovereign over everything, and he is, then the trials come into our lives because they are God's will. So what is the difference between trials and temptations? I think James is telling us the difference comes from God's intentions, God's motive. Why does God bring trials into our lives? What is his motive? What is his intention? It is because he loves us and he wants us to be strong. He wants us to be like Christ. But they are saying, God's motive is to tempt us; God's motive is to bring us down; God's motive is to destroy us. God is bringing in more than we can handle; he is actually tempting us to sin. And James says in James 1:13, that is wrong.1
Thomas Schreiner
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.