Articles
Trials Can Shake, Break Or Make Our Faith
"Trials can shake our Faith, break our Faith or make our Faith". If you read the thoughts posted here very often, you know the subject is frequently something related to the testing of our Faith. I don't know about you, but mine is tested daily, and sometimes several times a day.
Trials come in all shapes and sizes just like temptations and sometimes, in fact, they are one in the same. If we believe what we teach in the church we know sometimes God allows us to be shaken up, sometimes to awaken us to our surroundings and open our eyes to where we have allowed ourselves to be carried. The trials Satan uses to shake us, God can use to strengthen us. We may fail the test on occasion, but that doesn't make us a failure. It's the end result God is looking for. God allowed Job to be "sifted" by Satan. Job prevailed, and we can too.
If we allow the temptation, trial or whatever it may be to overtake us and we throw in the towel, we have surrendered and limited what God can do in the situation. James 1:1-13 is probably the most often used passage about trials and it reminds us that difficulties do come, and we may find ourselves questioning why, and we may even get angry. But we are confidently reminded that these things don't just happen to Christians and that God wants us to trust in Him. Recall Isaiah wrote of God, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways, saith Jehovah. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8) God may well be working on a specific plan for us and He promises Satan can't push us past what we can handle. If we are humble and persevere, God will prevail in all such situations.
Finally, such adversity in our lives can absolutely make our faith by growing us, maturing us and perfecting us. We are reminded of the foundation of our Faith and hopefully moved to return to that anchor in times of trouble. You've head the term "trial by fire", 1 Peter 1:7 explains, "These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." Peter, in speaking of trials and grief, tells us the specific purpose is to prove our faith is genuine, and a praise, glory, and honor to Christ.
Not all trials come just to bring us grief and trouble, although Satan enjoys such tribulation. Some come to make us better people, and certainly to strengthen our Faith. We can lean on Jesus in all trials, and we can survive on the strength He provides. Trials remind us we are the clay, not the potter. They remind us God wants us transformed into His image in a world trying to make God into theirs. God desires us to be more holy, not less; stronger, not weaker; mature and not immature. He wants to mold us, shape us and make us into a Godly, righteous, holy saint. The process is more often than not painful, but the transformation is altogether worth it in the end.
