The Trial of Your Faith, Part 3

I am receiving such encouraging responses to these blogs that I am motivated to submit yet another a bit sooner. I appreciate the encouragement and thank God for any blessing you receive from these meditations.

We concluded our last meditation pointing out that the trial of your faith mentioned in 1Peter 1:7 is “much more precious than of gold that perisheth.” The faith itself is much more precious than gold and so is the trial that purifies and improves that faith. Now it challenges our faith to think of the trying of it as being itself precious. But that it is so may be seen from this passage:

Romans 5:3  And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

4  And patience, experience; and experience, hope….

Before we comment on this verse, let’s define tribulation.

Tribulation – A condition of great affliction, oppression, or misery; persecution, distress; vexation; disturbance of life.

Tribulation is what you suffer when your faith is tried and you are “in heaviness through manifold temptations.” Now there is something about the trial of your faith that is so precious that you can glory it, just as we noted the apostle Paul doing in our last meditation (2Corinthians 12:9). When you glory in something, you rejoice exceedingly in it. Imagine being that excited over tribulation! But why would we glory in something that by definition is a source of misery, distress, vexation, and disturbance? There must indeed be something very precious about it if it elicits that response.

The reason we can glory in tribulations is not because we are masochists that enjoy pain for the sake of pain. If the tribulation were all pleasure, it would not be tribulation by definition. We do not rejoice in the tribulation as a thing in itself. We rejoice in the tribulation because we know what God is working by means of it. We glory in it precisely because it is a trial, a test that our loving heavenly Father is subjecting us to in order to make us better persons.

For us to truly glory in tribulation, we must view it from God's perspective. Our problem is that we all too often only view it from our perspective. As believers there are three things we need to ever bear in mind about God. The first thing is that God’s rule, and thus His control, extends over all things.

Psalms 103:19  The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.

Therefore, no tribulation or temptation can enter your life without His permission, which we have already noted from 1Corinthians 10:13. Remember that Satan could not lay a hand on Job or his possessions without God’s permission (JOB 1:12; 2:6). But, alas, it is at just this point that we get stuck. Much of our frustration in tribulation lies in that fact that we want to control what goes on in our lives rather than submitting to God's control. Might it not be that God is permitting a tribulation in your life to purge out just such self-willfulness? Might the Lord be trying your faith to bring it to the point of humble resignation such as our Lord expressed in the hour of His great agony: “Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42)? Fighting God for control will only make matters worse. “Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker!” (Isaiah 45:9).

The second thing we need to remember about God is that He knows and understands our suffering.

Exodus 3:7  And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows….

Job 23:10  But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

Psalms 31:7  I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities….

You may not understand why the trouble is there, but God does. He knows what He intends by permitting it in your life.  And this can also be a sticking point for us. If the tribulation does not make sense to us, then we think it makes no sense at all. That is because we are refusing to consider God’s take on the situation. We are exalting our understanding above His. You see, it is easy and clear to the discerning mind to know that there is a God. Our problem is coming to grips with the fact that we are not He! We are still infected with the poisonous lie that led to the downfall of our first parents: “ye shall be as gods.” We do so like to usurp His place in controlling our lives and fully understanding everything that transpires. Do you suppose that the Lord just might be letting you be “in heaviness through manifold temptations” to purge you of such self-exaltation?

And while I am on this point of understanding our tribulations, let me insert some additional thoughts. In his excellent book Disappointment with God Philip Yancey wrote: “Perhaps God keeps us ignorant because we are incapable of comprehending the answer.” There is a depth to God’s judgments and ways that we cannot fathom.

Romans 11:33  O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

God dwells in the dimension of eternity and, therefore, sees things much differently than we do who are bounded by time. An author of a finished book sees the whole plot of the book at once whereas a reader must plod through it sentence by sentence to get it. So it is with us as we plod through life in a fallen world full of suffering. God sees what you go through from a vastly different perspective. Our suffering here is only an infinitesimal bleep in comparison with eternity. This is where our faith enters in. Although we do not know all the answers, we trust in God Who does know. Are you beginning to see how the Lord might try your faith to prove whether you are trusting your understanding or His? I quote Philip Yancey again: “Faith means believing in advance what will only make sense in reverse.” And when you compare this infinitesimal bleep we are enduring now with the eternal glory that is ahead of us who are believers, why then, it is nothing to be compared. It is not even in the running.

Romans 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

 

And the third thing to always keep in mind is that God loves and cares for you, and purposes to do you good.

1 John 4:19  We love him, because he first loved us.

God manifested His love for you in sending His only-begotten and beloved Son to die for your miserable sins and to give you eternal life.

1 John 4:9  In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

How much more must the Lord do to show you that He cares for you and intends good for you?

1 Peter 5:7  Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

Jeremiah 32:40  And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.

Now as you suffer your tribulation, you may choose to doubt God’s love, care, and good intentions for you. But I ask you in all honesty, just how is doubting and denying these plain statements from the mouth of God going to make your situation better or help you to cope with it better?

All these three things taken together, God's control of all things, God's understanding of all things, and God's love and care for you, let you know that God has something good wrapped into that heaviness you are bearing. From these three facts about God you may have the assurance expressed in these famous words of the psalmist David.

Psalms 23:6  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Goodness and mercy are tracking you as you make your way through your tribulation. It might not seem so clear to you now, but as time passes you will be able to look back and see clearly that goodness and mercy were there tagging along all the way. I know it has been thus with me. And this is what gives me courage to keep trudging ahead.

Now we are expressly told something God intends by permitting us to be “in heaviness through manifold temptations,” and that is, the trying of our faith in order to develop patience. But, alas, that will have to wait until the next installment. In the meantime, let it suffice you for now to know that through the trial of your faith, God is making you a type of His adorable Son for all to see. Our tribulations are all part of the plan to make us more and more like Jesus. Greater honour there cannot be than being like the Lord Jesus Christ, for that is the grand end of the salvation of God. “Oh, to be like Thee, blessed Redeemer!”

1 John 3:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.