Here is a little inspiration for your morning. May God bless you all.😙💨 Every thoughtful person has wondered why God sends trials to His children. You dont live very long before that question stares you in the face. It might be a critical illness, death of a loved one, loss of a job, the breakup of a marriage, trouble with your children, a season of depression, financial difficulties, or a time of intense persecution from others because of your faith. Those things happen to all of us sooner or later. When we turn to the Bible, we find many perspectives that help us understand why trials come to Gods children. 1 Peter 1:6-9, offers an important perspective that we need to know. No single text could answer every question, but it does provide a crucial framework for seeing the hand of God at work in the worst moments of life. It says, Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through trials: 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 honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 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: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. There are two key words here. The first is the word trials at the end of verse 6. The Greek word is peirasmos, a word that appears often in the New Testament. It can mean test, or trial or temptation. Depending on the context, it can have a positive or negative connotation. When we face a test in school, we either pass or fail. The same is true of the tests of life. God sends those tests so that what is in our heart will be revealed for all to see. When trouble comes, We may turn to God in prayer, or we may become bitter. We may become quiet and thoughtful, or we may begin to complain. We may become tender and compassionate, or we may become harsh and cruel. We may learn new trust in God, or we may rebel against Him. We may take courage, or we may give in to fear. We may draw close to God, or we may turn away from Him. The same event in all cases, but vastly different results. It all depends on how we respond. The second word to look at comes from the first phrase of verse 6: Wherein ye greatly rejoice. Take the root word joy and consider it for a moment. What is joy? Its a difficult word to define. We know that joy and happiness are two different things. Happiness depends on circumstances, and comes and goes depending on the emotions of the moment. But joy is deeper and more profound because it comes from God. Last night as I pondered the matter, this thought came to me: Joy comes from satisfaction with God. When we are satisfied with God, we will have joy even in the hardest moments of life. G.K. Chesterton called joy the gigantic secret of the Christian life. Joy, he said, is always at the center for the Christian; trials are at the periphery of life. I put these ideas together this way: Joy is the ability to face reality - the good and bad, the happy and the sad, the positive and the negative, the best and the worst - because we are satisfied with God. Seen in this light, there is no contradiction between joy and trials. They belong together. May we have joy that passeth all understanding, through a heart that knows, trusts and loves God.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 12:50:47 +0000
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