|
"Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if
need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold
temptations:That the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though
it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour
and glory at the
appearing of Jesus Christ:" 1 Peter 1: 6 & 7. "My brethren,
count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh
patience.But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may
be perfect and entire,
wanting nothing." James 1:2-4.
Just recently, I was talking with someone who has a physical
problem that is not life threatening, but very trying ( a
thorn in the flesh if you
will); and he said, "I have asked the Lord to take it away
and He hasn't. I don't understand why He won't take it
away." This man is my elder by
many years and so I tried to encourage him to just trust the
Lord, but I am afraid he wasn't convinced.
One fact of a Christians life is that there are going to be many trials
along the way; whether it be the trial of persecution, a
physical
sickness, finances, trials of raising children, not being
able to have children, and the list goes on. There are all
kinds of trials that can
arise in a Christians life; they are inevitable and they are
ordered by the Lord. There in the verse quoted above, I
Peter 1:7 it says that "the
trials of your faith, being much more precious than gold."
Many examples come to mind when you think about a trial of
faith, Noah, building the
Ark, Abraham offering Isaac, Hannah praying for a son, David
running from Saul waiting to get the kingdom, Daniel in the
lion's den, and on and on.
There are several reasons why the Lord tries us; lets look at those. In
IPeter 1:7 it says that those trials will bring glory to the
Lord at His
appearing. First of all, when the Lord does come, we will be
able to look back at all the trials that He has
brought us through and this will beanother reason to praise
Him. Secondly, if you look at verse 8 which says, "Whom
having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him
not,
yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of
glory," it tells us that another effect of these trials will
be that we will love
the Lord more and will look forward to Him coming. Then, if
you look at James 1 you will see a much more detailed reason
for the trials, it is a
perfecting work that the Lord is performing in you. The Lord
uses trials to mold us into what He wants us to be. As it
mentions, one of the main
things that it works in us is patience. Don't we all need
more of that? AMEN! There are other things that trials
work in us, such as teaching us
to trust the Lord. I always ask people when I am counseling
with something that they may be struggling with. "If you can
trust the Lord to
keep your eternal soul from Hell, can you not trust Him with
every detail of you life?" He is very able to handle your
life as well and wants you
to give Him the reigns and sit back and enjoy the ride.
One thing that always accompanies a trial is temptation to
sin. The Lord has outlined it so perfectly in James 1. Yes,
we are not going to
understand a lot of things when we are going through a
trial. His answer: verse 5, "if any man lack wisdom, let him
ask of God." And the Devil and
all his forces are always going to be there to tell you that
the Lord is going to fail you, that you are in this thing
all by yourself, etc.
trying to destroy our faith. The Lord's answer: verses 6-8,
"But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that
wavereth is like a wave of
the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that
man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
A double minded man is unstable in all his ways." And also
in verse 12, "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation:
for when he is tried, he
shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath
promised to them that love him. There is a blessing to those
who look to the Lord and
endure the trial allowing it to purge them and work in them.
However, when we don't there is one thing that we need to
realize and that is that
the temptation to doubt and question the Lord comes from our
own lust (vs. 14-16)and the Lord warns us, "Do not err, my
beloved brethren."
May the Lord bless you.
Sis. Tanya
|
in the
