TFL: "When Trials Come, Part 1, B" *****
- Knowledge over feelings
- What is this knowledge?
- God’s Providence
- We know in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose
- Romans 8:28 (New International Version):
“28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,[a] who[b] have been called according to his purpose.”
- We cannot accept trials for their own sake as a source of joy
- Trials are painful, but may become the occasions of joy if we respond from the right perspective
- Unless we think correctly we cannot respond properly
- Paul in Romans – transform your minds
- Romans 12:2 (New International Version)
- “2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
- Society teaches us to think that when we do not have trials then we have joy and so if we spend all our time removing trials, then we will have joy
- James says the opposite
- Now this is difficult, but God would not ask it if it were not attainable
- Gold will provide for us and is willing to do so
- Trials are inevitable, they are not unusual
- Jesus said “in the world we will have tribulations, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.
- John 16:33
- 33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will[d] have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
Why are there trials, a few reasons are offered:
- Faith rationalization
- We are unfit for heaven and by Jesus’s death on the cross he has made heaven available to us
- So that we may trust unreservedly in Him
- Trials are the means by which our faith is tested
- Is our faith genuine?
- It is easy to be faithful when everything is going “rosey-posey”
- It is when the wheels come off then we discover if our faith is genuine
- Is our faith growing?
- Perseverance
- By the means of the testing we develop staying power
- God knows how much we can take
- We are forced to learn in practice what we know in principle
- Look into the eyes of a person with soft eyes, ie a caring grandmother or a sensitive youth and you can guarantee they did not come to that point without persevering trials
- Perseverance when it finishes, renders as its product: maturity, completion, and lacking nothing
- We do not get the crown without perseverance
- We become mature, like Jesus through this process
- Trials are part of God’s program to make us more like Christ.
- Puritan writer:
- “The winds of tribulation blow away the chaff of error, hypocrisy, and doubt, leaving the element of Christian character.”
- More progress is made through disappointment and tears than laughter
- Spurgeon:
- “Look at the weather beaten sailor and he would not have gotten toughness if he stayed on the shore.”
- “You may go to school, but you cannot learn endurance there.”
- If we believe all this then it will dramatically affect how we respond to trials
- Trials hurt and may panic us, but we consider them pure joy because endurance and sacred toughness come down that road and not down the road of easiness.
- If we lack wisdom, ie if none of this makes sense, then ask God and He will get us sorted out -> PRAY
- It is a supernatural response that James prescribes and without God’s intervention, ie the Spirit’s power, we will never even come close to realizing it.
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