Trials are never a fun experience but, we serve a great and loving God who has a good reason for trials.
God has been teaching me about trials recently, much of it has come from the teaching of Pastor James Macdonald, Rick Holland, and John Piper. Before I write what I have learned I want to give these men credit because most of this information is not from me, but from their teachings.
Purpose in Trials..
Psalm 23:3 says “He leads me in paths of righteousness”
Literally Paths of Righteousness are right paths, paths that lead to peace, joy, and blessing.
Psalm 16:11 says the paths of a good man are ordered by the lord.
A loving sovereign God leads us into difficult paths, because he is trying to produce something in our lives. The hard circumstances are the paths of righteousness, this in when God is closest, and when he grows us.
God’s Love..
God by his very nature is love, here’s how James Macdonald explain’s God’s love.
God’s love is a protecting love, but it’s not a preventing love.
God has a higher purpose than your pleasure or lack of pain, in the next few minutes, weeks, or months.
3 Reasons why God allows pain.
- He allows pain to humble us.
- He allows pain to refine us, to be more like him.
- He allows pain to restore us.
God’s Love is a perfecting love, its not a pampering love.
“You are under construction my friend and God is working on you. There will be hard times and difficult times but you can trust Him. Nothing comes into your life but that He chooses to allow it. Nothing comes into you life but that He is committed to using it for your good. His eyes are upon you, you are never far from his thoughts. He counts the hairs on your head, He saves your tears in a bottle, He loves you with an everlasting love. But let His love be what it really is! Its a perfecting love.. I Choose God’s love.”
~ James Macdonald
Lord and Savior..
Not only does God have a purpose for trials, and love us, but he is our Savior and Lord. Too often in trials we view God as a cosmic fix it.
Rick Holland has said this about trials. “What we do with God in the middle of our most severe trials may be the angle setting precipice of our lives. Everything flows from what we do with God, what we think of God, where our theology goes and comes in the middle of a difficult trial.”
The main point here is that we should NEVER view God as our fix it man. In first Samuel we see Hannah, who really desired a child. She even prayed desperately to God. But during her trial she never viewed Him as a fix it, this is proved by the fact that after she received a child, she went and praised God. Thus Hannah loved and trusted God, MORE than her desire for a child. Otherwise she would have forgotten God after receiving the child, and spent her time marveling and praising the child.
Three views of God that provide perspective in difficulty
- God is savior. 1 Samuel 2:1-2
- God is sovereign. 1 Samuel 2:3-9
- God is Judge. 1 Samuel 2:10
Conclusion..
Through some difficult times in my own life recently, God has graciously blessed me. While I have not necessarily seen God’s reason for the trial, I have grown so much through it. James Macdonald has a definition of faith that I really like. He defines faith like this “Faith is believing the word of God and acting upon it, no matter how I feel because God promises a good result.”
Blessings,
Jeremy