The Trial of Your Faith, Part 6

Today we will bring to conclusion this series of meditations on “the trial of your faith,” God willing.

When undergoing a hardship, we often fantasize of a miraculous deliverance.  Wouldn’t that make people believe, we think.  And, to be sure, Scripture indeed records accounts of those who received miraculous deliverance from suffering.  But this did not always make believers out of people.  Israel in the wilderness experienced many miraculous deliverances and yet perished in that wilderness because of unbelief.  Jesus wrought many miraculous deliverances and the world crucified Him.  In the light of this, we would do well to focus on the several accounts given in Scripture of those who received no miraculous deliverance from their tribulation in this life.  And notice that prepositional phrase in italics, in this life.  I’ll come back to that. But of those who received no miraculous deliverance we read this:

Hebrews 11:35  Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:

36  And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:

37  They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;

38  (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

39  And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:

40  God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

We think of miraculous deliverances as mighty works of God, and indeed they are.  But we also need to realize that a faith that manifests itself in the midst of suffering without a miraculous deliverance is also a mighty work of God.  That these saints held fast to their holy faith in such afflictions as these was attributable to the mighty working of God in them.  You see, it takes the glorious power of God for us to patiently bear our trials as we see in Paul’s prayer for the believers at Colosse.

Colossians 1:11  Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness….

Those patient saints noted in Hebrews were strengthened with all might according to the glorious power of God.  Now that is a mighty work!  It is humbling to realize that it takes that kind of power for us to be patient.  And then Paul prayed this for the Thessalonian believers who were undergoing persecution:

2 Thessalonians 1:11  Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power….

You show me the work of faith, and I will show you the power of God.  And when God is fulfilling in you “the work of faith with power,” He is counting you worthy of His calling to eternal glory.  Can you think of anything you would rather be counted worthy of? 

And that brings us back to those suffering saints we read of in Hebrews 11.  In the midst of all that they suffered, they “obtained a good report through faith” even though they had not as yet received the promise.  They kept their sights on the future glory that God promised would be theirs and this sustained them through their present hardships.  Although they did not receive a miraculous deliverance in this life, they knew that such a deliverance awaited them in the next life.

2 Corinthians 4:17  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

18  While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

When we are too focused on what we see in this world in the way of suffering and what would relieve it, we can be overwhelmed by our tribulation.  But when we focus on the great unseen things promised to those who love the Lord, then that puts the present tribulation into perspective and makes it more supportable.  This was the key to the great endurance of the suffering saints mentioned in Hebrews.

It all comes down to which you would rather have.  Would you rather have temporary suffering in this life with everlasting pleasure in the next life, or pleasure in this life with everlasting suffering in the next?  Consider what our Lord Jesus had to say about this:

Luke 6:20  And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.

21  Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.

22  Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.

23  Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.

24  But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.

25  Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep.

26  Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

It is much better to suffer now and be blessed than to have your ease now and be cursed.  Just remember these words of our Lord the next time you envy some wicked person who is prospering in the world while you are suffering as you follow Christ.  It may seem for the moment that your faith isn’t working and, therefore, is of little worth.  But eternity will reveal it to have been otherwise.  Just have patience.  It will pay off in the end.

Now you might wonder why you can’t have pleasure and ease in this life and in the next.  Well, in an unfallen world that would have been the case, but not in a fallen world. Given our sinfulness, yes, even in spite of the grace of God in us, were we to have too much pleasure and ease here, we would never want to quit this world for the next.  God knows how to wean us from this world and wean us He does!

And this brings us back to 1Peter 1:6-7:

1 Peter 1:6  Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

7  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:

Observe that the tried faith will “be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”  Just how important is it to you to honour the Lord and in turn receive the honour that comes from Him?  You see, many do not have this tried faith precisely because they do not seek this honour that comes from the Lord.

John 5:44  How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?

John 12:42  Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue:

43  For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.

The praise of men? or the praise of God?  Which do you most desire?  If the honour and praise of men is so important to you, you will lack the courageous faith that endures the fiery trial, which was the kind of faith those saints had that we read about in Hebrews 11.  Indeed, these saints did not have the honour and praise of this world.  But this world was the loser for that rather than they, for it is written of them:  “Of whom the world was not worthy.”  This world does not deserve to have good people like that in it.    

So in all your tribulation, seek first and foremost to honour God in how you bear it knowing that everlasting honour awaits you at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Hang it there!  Be patient! Keep the faith!

Hebrews 10:35  Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.

36  For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

37  For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.

38  Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

39  But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.

I close this series of meditations on this somber note:

Luke 18:8  …Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

The Trial of Your Faith, Part 5

I closed out our last meditation with this sentence: “When you are bearing your tribulations with patience, you are being like the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Our blessed Lord is the quintessential example of patience as the following passage clearly shows:

1 Peter 2:20  For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.

21  For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

22  Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:

23  Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously….

To not sin, to not return evil for evil, to commit yourself to God’s righteous judgment when you suffer, this is to suffer like the Lord. And this is what it is all about.  God is shaping your life to reflect the life of His Son.  When we study the lives of the Old Testament prophets, prophets like Joseph, Moses, and David, we see things they endured that foreshadow what our Lord would endure on this earth.  We call these prophets “types of Christ.”  We could spend a lot of time showing you examples of this.  But just as the Lord was making types of Christ out of these prophets in the things they suffered, so is He making you a type of His Son in the things you suffer.  By this means this world may see Christ in you. 

To suffer like Jesus is to experience “the fellowship of his sufferings.” 

Philippians 3:10  That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

11  If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

Suffering is something you and the Lord Jesus share together, if you follow His example of suffering with patience.  In his book Where Is God When It Hurts, Philip Yancey wrote:  “Suffering can never ultimately be meaningless, because God himself has shared it.” Between the present suffering and the final deliverance, it is comforting to know that God indeed understands our pain and suffering having Himself suffered in Christ.  Some who bear a grudge against God for the unfairness of life think that God should suffer.  He did!  Philip Yancey also wrote:  “The evils and sufferings that afflict our lives are so real and so significant to God that He willed to share them and endure them himself.”  If you truly trust in and love the Lord Jesus Christ, then it should give you no little comfort to think of Him as sharing your suffering with you.  And you can be sure that there is nothing but nothing that you suffer in this life but what He suffered the like when He walked amongst us on this earth.  This is why Paul could write these things about our Lord:

Hebrews 2:17  Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

18  For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

Hebrews 4:14  Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.

15  For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

16  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Never let the devil convince you that Jesus does not understand what you are going through.  Rather, boldly ask the Lord to help you through the tribulation believing that He will, and He will help you.  You can count on that!  Because, you see, God is pleased when you process your life through your relationship with His beloved Son.  It honours Christ when you seek to pattern your life after Him and to relate the whole of your life to Him. When you honour Christ, you honour His Father God.  And when you honour God, you will be honoured.

John 5:22  For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:

23  That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.

1 Samuel 2:30  … but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.

Great honour awaits those who presently have part in the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings.  Think of your sufferings as not only something you suffer for Christ, think of them as something you suffer with Him.  And thinking of it this way, let your faith grab hold of this promise and not let it go:

Romans 8:17  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Never forget, first the cross then the crown!  As certain as you bear the cross here, you will wear the crown there. Keep your sights on that crown.

However, too many times, instead of patiently bearing our suffering, we let our suffering be an excuse to lash out at someone or to manipulate them to get what we want. This is not suffering like our Lord!  Suffering does not give us a license to be unkind to others.  It is interesting that when Paul lays out the characteristics of charity, he begins with this:  “Charity suffereth long and is kind” (1Corinthians 13:4).  Note that the first characteristic of charity that is mentioned connects it with the issue of suffering. Suffering crosses our will and when our will is crossed we often respond with anger, or discontent, or yielding to some sin because we think we deserve a break.  But charity is longsuffering, which is defined as patient endurance of provocation or trial.  The Greek word translated suffereth long is elsewhere translated have patience, patience, be patient, had patiently endured.  One way we know we are patiently enduring our suffering is when, as we suffer, we treat others with kindness rather than lashing out at them or abusing them. Of course, none is so kind as our dear Lord Jesus.  Consider the kindnesses wrought by our Lord whilst He suffered.  On the very eve of being betrayed by one of His friends, He washed the disciples’ feet (John 13:1-5).  In Gethsemane when Peter in blind zeal severed the ear of the servant of the high priest, Christ healed that servant (John 18:10; Luke 22:50-51).  While on His cross, He prayed that those who mocked Him might be forgiven (Luke 23:34), He comforted the penitent thief (Luke 23:40-43), and He provided for the care of His mother (John 19:26-27). Therefore, when we patiently suffer and are kind while we suffer, we follow the example set by our Saviour.

Now go with me to dark Calvary. At Calvary the powers of darkness seemed to prevail for a time. The Messiah was hanging nailed to a cross and God did nothing to bring Him down (Matthew 27:39-43). This seemed to justify the unbelief of Christ’s enemies. They said they would have believed Him if He came down from that cross, although His other miracles had not convinced them. Yet God’s purposes were being accomplished through all this intense suffering and seeming defeat. Now think of the greatest disappointment in your life when you staked everything on something within God’s power and that something did not happen. Then think of Calvary.  Calvary was the time when God did not deliver the Sufferer.  And just as God’s purpose, even our salvation, was being wrought at Calvary, so a purpose is being wrought in your life beyond your disappointed expectation. And one purpose that we know is being wrought through your suffering is God’s purpose to make you like His Son.  So instead of just asking God to remove your suffering, which you may indeed do, also ask Him to use it to teach you and to make more like Jesus so that you may say:

Psalm 119:71  It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.

Psalm 119:67  Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.

Remember this and don’t forget it:  the most important thing in all our suffering is that we follow Christ’s example and thus become more like Him.  To have the life of Jesus manifest in your body while you live on this earth is the greatest honour that you can possibly aspire unto.

2 Corinthians 4:8  We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;

9  Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

10  Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

11  For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.