The Trials of a Believer
Are you facing trials in your life? Maybe they have to do with personal relationships that seem strained to the breaking point. Or, maybe your trials are physical; your body is full of pain and sickness. Maybe your suffering stems from grief due to the misery of sin and anguish in the life of a loved one. Perhaps your trials come from the fact that you’re having financial difficulties, and you’re not sure how you’ll have enough money to meet your obligations. It could be that your sufferings arise from doubts and fears about the future.
If you are suffering, take heart. The Apostle James wrote, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds” (Jas 2:2). We are called to rejoice, to have a deep and convictional satisfaction in Christ in the midst of our various sufferings. The Apostle Paul said, “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom 5:3-5).
Your suffering as a believer makes sense. Remember into Whose likeness you are being fashioned. Think of His greatness, His perfections, His excellence and beauty. Imagine the kind of thorough refinement that must take place if you are to be made like your Lord. You are far from being conformed to His image, and there is much work yet to be done. The sharp tools of the sculptor will be painful, but that’s because the image being created is so excellent. Trials and sufferings in this life shouldn’t surprise us or confuse us. Let me encourage you not to resent them, but to welcome them as the means by which your Lord is making you into His image.
Your suffering as a believer makes sense for another reason. Satan is a powerful enemy. The Bible describes Him as one who “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet 5:8). His greatest desire is to inflict pain and suffering upon God’s image bearers and especially upon those who belong to Christ. Scripture describes someone under Satanic attack as one who “suffers terribly” (Matt 17:15), and it speaks of the cruelty of demons (Matt 15:22). The devil rejoices at your sufferings in this life, and as far as he is able, his aim will only be to increase them. Christ knows what it is to suffer under the trials of Satan (Matt 4:1-11); so take heart, you have a high priest who can sympathize with your weaknesses and who will never allow you to be tested beyond what you are able to bear.
Finally, your suffering as a believer makes sense in light of the powerful remaining sin in your own heart. Not all of your miseries come from without. Some of your miseries result from the sin that dwells within you. The Bible teaches that there is a terrible war going on inside your heart. Paul said, “For I delight in the law of God in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells within my members” (Rom 7:22-23). But, this war is necessary if you are to become more like your Savior and King. So, let me exhort you to fight the good fight of faith (1 Tim 6:12).
If you are facing trials in your life, I encourage you to think about them from God’s perspective. Your trials make sense. They are necessary and understandable in light of your present condition. As you suffer, think of the pains of hell, which you will not experience. Remember the pains of Christ on the cross, and that He endured such suffering so that you will never have to. And, then by faith, grow to embrace your trials as the instrument of God’s grace to make you more like Jesus for your joy and His glory.
Blessings in Christ,
Brother Tom
