I know I have been quiet for a while. It has been tough. Most of the year has been tough actually and I have ended up sort of wishing the year away. If I can just get through, surviving then I will be OK. But this week my quiet times have been all about trials. I have learnt some very good and very uncomfortable lessons. I have seen that I have not responded in a good or godly way at all and I have asked God to help me do better. I thought I would share some of these lessons with you today.
- We do not deserve good and easy lives. We have got it easy, let’s be honest. Even our difficulties are not really that bad. We do not know what it is like to be starving, to be really cold, to have nothing. We live blessed lives – the problems which we have are usually solvable. This is a problem. It makes us think that we deserve to have our problems solved; to have an easy life. Trials come our way and we get cross and think its unfair. However, trials are used to teach us all sorts of things. We see this in Deuteronomy 8 where it talks about all the reasons the Israelites were wandering in the desert. Trials can refine our character and make us more like Christ, if we let them.
- We have control over how we respond to trials. James 1 tells us to count it all joy when we experience trials. The word used for count is the same root as the word for govern or rule. The idea is that we need to rule our response. We can sit and mope and wait for it to pass or we can choose to use it as an opportunity for a growth in godliness. When anything happens we have a choice in how to respond. We cannot change other people or what they do, but we can change ourselves and our response. Therefore we need to ask ourselves, which response will make me more like God? Bring peace and happiness?
- He who perseveres is blessed. Again in James 1 and in Hebrews 12 it talks about persevering. Persevering in the trial is not simply getting through it, it is not just waiting for it to pass. Rather it is actively enduring. Which is much more difficult. Fortunately for us the idea of perseverance is to abide under God’s care. We can actively endure and we can run our race well and we can use trials as opportunities for growth, because of the grace and love of God. He will help us, if we but ask.
- We need to get rid of our excess weight. Hebrews 12 tells us to throw of everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. We all have things which hinder and entangle us but we are so used to carrying around the extra weight that we don’t even notice it anymore. God calls us to get rid of it. Some examples of extra weight could be bad habits; unrealistic expectations; lies we believe; lives which are too busy or childhood experiences. The only way to get rid of the lies and shut out the voices of the world is to fill our minds with truth.
By this point in the week I am feeling pretty down and low because I realize that not only am I going through trials but I am not even using them for any good. I have not allowed them to shape or change me, I have not actively endured, I have not turned to God to let Him use it as an opportunity to grow. I have squandered my trials. Then I learnt the last lesson.
5. Let God use failure as His opportunity. We will fail. At some point, somewhere along the line. When we do we condemn ourselves and we let Satan tell us how worthless and useless we are. God does not say those things. He says there is no condemnation; He says He will strengthen us; He says do not grow weary in doing good. We will fail, but when we do let us turn to God. Let us press even closer to Him and steep ourselves even more in truth. It is truth, not self control which will set us free.
These things are all difficult. It is easier to succumb to the trial; to turn to moaning or food or exercise or shopping or TV instead of turning to God. When we have trials, when we suffer, when we want to give up, when it seems too difficult – let us remember to turn to God and thank Him that He will always sustain us; always give us strength and grace; always help us to endure.