”Trials always change our relationship with God. Either they drive us to Him, or they drive us away from Him. The extent of our fear of Him and our awareness of His love for us determine in which direction we will move.”
-Jerry Bridges, The Practice of Godliness
Trails, suffering, hardships, burdens; they lace through our lives, crushing us, tempting us to just give it all up, drown in depression, and let go of all hope. Mother’s with cancer, parents dying, losing all we have, friendships torn apart, car accidents, illness…these afflictions come and we stand there like Job, with a choice, we can curse God or run to Him.
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.”-2 Corinthians 4:7-12
We have a God of all comfort, all strength, all power, all sovereignty, he does not leave us or forsake us, our hope is in all of heaven and our foundation is on Him who will not be moved. James says we can count it as “all joy,” in our trials all possible hope surrounds us and leads us to see what lies ahead. Such grace is shown to us in these momentary sorrows and we have a grace beyond anything imaginable, a grace that brings not tears to our eyes but wipes away each one, comforting us.
Now, before straying to far, this is not meaning we sit there and expect all comfort and ease, (http://ashleynicolecaptivated.blogspot.com/2010/03/as-he-removes-his-robes-of.html or http://ashleynicolecaptivated.blogspot.com/2011/06/walking-according-to-law.html) rather let us be faithful as He is faithful, we find comfort in our obedience, knowing that He gives us strength.
Where do we begin when trials come our way? We must begin before they come. If Christ is not first and foremost our foundation, where do we expect to stand when the waves of trials come. Charles Spurgeon wrote, “If Jesus be our hope for everything, except one thing, we shall utterly fail, because in that one point we shall come to nought…Beware of mixing even a little of self with the mortar with which you build, or you will make it untempered mortar, and the stones will not hold together.” If our foundation in daily living is filled not fully of Christ and him alone, one mix of our worldly desires or strongholds will quickly crumble under the weight and so will we. Jesus is our all in all, our everything, daily we must trust and rely on Him through prayer, reading his word and obedience.
Secondly, where is your hope? Do you hope in the things to come of a life that will sooner vanish than smoke here on earth? Or are we longing, yearning, even desperate for heaven? Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, "For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." If our hope and steadfast longing does not dwell in heaven than we fail to see how our trials here prepare us for the “eternal weight of glory,” that Paul mentions here and the things unseen will seem as something less than those seen. Let us let go of what we so desperately cling to here on this earth, what causes sin in our lives or what you say “I hope I have this before I die…” and exchange it for the thought and true desire for the glory that awaits us as Paul says in Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
Last of all; let us remember what we have been given when trials come our way. Unlike the world who seeks after faulty understanding, we have been given the mind of Christ, we have all wisdom and understanding through him who created and is sovereign over all trials and test in our lives. Let us look at what 1 Corinthians 2:14-16 says,
“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”
The most common phrase that a person who has encountered trials says is, “What do I do now?” Well, as Christians we are given the wisdom and understanding of Christ, God so desires to give his people wisdom, we just need to seek it! When trials come do we first think to what action would please or glorify God first? Let us run to having the same mindset and action of Christ in life’s circumstances, Paul while in prison began to sing hymns, worshipping God even in his trials, how are we seeking to do the same? Our attitudes so affect how we over come in trials, Oswald Chambers said, “We all know people who have been made much meaner and more irritable and more intolerable to live with by suffering: it is not right to say that all suffering perfects. It only perfects one type of person...the one who accepts the call of God in Christ Jesus.” Will we so be those people in trials? Let us strive for endurance and growth in trials, to endure is to never resort to a sinful means in trials, but to overcome in obedience and joyfulness in the Lord.
I leave you with the exhortation in James when it comes to your trials and encouragement to know that no man suffers alone, when we are tempted and tried, know that men before us have so been through the same and overcame these trials and affliction through Christ, and I with great confidence tell you He will do the same through us.
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”- James 1:2-4
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