All tagged trials
Do we think God has abandoned us when we are in a season of suffering in our lives? Do we look to Him and cry out in anger at our pain? Does doubt come from our strife, or even the mere endurance of hardship... or do we trust in Him all the more? There is a mystery in suffering; we wonder why God uses adversity and pain to teach us some of faith’s most valuable lessons.
Seeing God in every good thing about us is a gift, but being able to see Him in our troubles is truly a blessing. When we see God in our distress it calms the spirit and reassures us because we grow in our absolute faith in His goodness. E.M. Bounds expounded on this by saying that if we can find God in our troubles that "we are warranted in taking them to God in prayer and seeking to get the greatest spiritual benefits out of them." So many of us only see our problems in a negative light, and miss the fact that they too benefit us.
Hold your spiritual ground. Do you have the patience to wait as God prepares you to be used by Him to complete His will? Do you exhibit the endurance of Sardis in keeping God's commandments and Word? Are you holding fast to your faith so that your crown remains secure against any who would seize it from you?
We build character by facing trials and tribulations, and no one knows this better than the Christian. Our suffering hardens us in our belief, and builds up the resolve we have in our faith. Surviving our individual tribulations opens our eyes to the true character of Christ. However, our joint suffering with Him, and with one another, will bring us together as one; one in love, one in forgiveness, one in our faith, and one in every character trait of Christ that reflects the Father. Do we value who Jesus is enough to suffer with Him so that we will become as He is… free of imperfection?
When we face great difficulty, or are taken captive by some form of trouble, we turn immediately to God, and begin to search His Word for relief. Those who rarely read the Bible do so when they are hurting, and pour over its pages until at last they latch onto a key verse or two that help them deal with what they are facing in their lives… then they memorize them, and recite them time and again in prayer. There is nothing line feeling separated from God, or a serious problem to bring us close to Him… is this where we are today? Are we in the midst of trouble, and seeking, or returning to Him for relief? Well, He will reveal Himself to us in such times.
We want to live easy happy lives, but trouble always seems to find us. In the midst of them we cry out to the Lord for relief, and to have mercy on us, but these are the very times that strengthen us most, and prepare us for what lies ahead in our service to God. David would not have been the king that he was had he not first faced Goliath, been pursued by King Saul, or lusted for Bathsheba, and faced the repercussions of that sin. All of the hard things in our lives temper us, and by going through them we are made stronger. We are not made stronger BY our distress, but IN it.
When we face trials in our lives God will teach us lessons in faith through them, and the hardships we encounter will be of varying degrees, but every once in a while we will face one that is so overwhelming, and so devastating, that it shakes our faith to its very core, and those are the storms that break loose the loose debris of our self-imposed religion. These are the disasters that leave us with only the cornerstone of Jesus, and the solid foundational stones of God standing. It is in such times, when we think all is lost, that we will find our belief is still intact beneath the rubble, and that the things of God which are firm, and never changing have not only survived, but have become more deeply imbedded in us. Each of us will go through minor tremors, and fires of varying degrees, but when that magnitude 10 quake comes, or the fierce fires rage, what will we find standing when their dust has settled?
When Joseph had been through all his boyhood suffering, been sold into slavery, and had risen to power in Egypt, he was blessed with two sons. The first he named after God’s mercy for allowing him to forget those hardships, and the second he named for the blessings God poured out on him after his afflictions. We should take note that although we face trouble in our lives the Lord is merciful in them, and that blessings rise from their ashes. Do we look at our lives like a burning house, and forget this short lived suffering while seeing what our Father is preparing to build for us on that very spot?
What do we do when we are faced with certain calamity, or we are required to make a decision in a situation that has no obvious answer? Well, the solution is not to cower in fear, or throw up our hands in surrender, no, like in all things that require us to exceed our ability, we are to turn to God for His strength, rescue, provision, or an answer. We are to seek Him, and then stand firm. Times like this require that we wait on the Lord our God to take action, speak wisdom to us, or show us an escape. In such situations we will surely see the hand of God in a powerful way.
We are not going to escape suffering in this world. As we go through life we will face sickness, death, all forms of persecution, and various trials by the bushel full, one thing is certain however, and this is that our God has promised we will not face any of this alone, because He is with us. In this place we will weep, cry out in pain, and mourn, but in every valley the Lord will be with us to comfort us. Now we are meant to both laugh and cry, to be young and old, and to walk from day to night, and back, but one day, when we reach our final destination, all of this will be behind us; our small joys will become eternal, and all of our tears will be dried forever.