Why do Christians go through trials?
The Bible is a brutally honest book. It shows us it’s characters not as towering heroes, but as weak men and women with all their flaws and faults. The Bible never focuses on their strength and courage, but it rather focusses on God’s grace in helping them in their need. The Bible is about the greatness of God, and the weakness of men who is helped by this great God. This is also true when men and women in the Bible met with trails, which is the subject of our study this morning. Job, Habakuk, Lamentations and 40% of the Psalms speak about sorrow and lament. There is also much to say about the matter in the New Testament. And often, the trials we face are beyond our ability to handle. This much is true and the apostle Paul tells us of his own experience of this in 2 Corinthians 1:8-9 where he says “For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death.”
Now let me say, it was never God’s original intention that we should find trials and troubles in life. These came as a result of sin. This becomes clear from Genesis 3:16-19 already where the effect of sin was pronounced by God. “To the woman he said, ‘I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.’ And to Adam he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Even as believers we will experience trials. Jesus speaking to His disciples in John
16:33 says “I
have said these things to you, that in my you may have peace. In the world you
will have tribulation.” In Philippians 1:29 Paul says “For it has been
granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in Him
but also suffer for His sake.”
Christians
go through trials. Christians even go
through trials because of their faith.
But why? Paul ends that statement in 2 Corinthians explaining why:
“But
that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”
I want to
answer this question: Why do Christians go through trials? I want
us to see: Trials are intended to make the believer rely on God. We
look at 3 reasons for trials
1. Trails
are a test of our faith
Listen to how the apostle puts it in 1 Peter 1:6-7 “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
When we face moments of doubt about our faith, our perseverance and God’s faithfulness will stand as evidence that our faith is genuine. There are many who claim to be believers, but when trials come they do not turn to God. They turn to worldly solutions, they turn to worldly people, they turn to everything and everyone accept the Lord. This is an indication that their faith is not real.
They are trying to face this trouble in their own strength and have forgotten about God. Trials shows us if our faith is real. Trials show us where our faith needs to be strengthened.
Paul realised his own weakness in 2 Corinthians 16:33 and so He turned to the Lord. That’s what true faith does: It cries out to God! Whatever trails you may go through, whether it is trials of illness, trials of family, trials at work, trials for the sake of your faith, turn to the Lord, that is what shows true faith.
And what does it mean to turn to the Lord. It means pray about it. It means trust the Lord about it. It means do not neglect or neglect your spiritual disciplines, including going to church. It means that you accept that God is well capable to handle this situation and I rely on Him.
It does not, however, mean that you simply sit back and do nothing. It means you do what you need to do. It means that you do what is right to do. But
it means that your reliance in no longer on your own ability or strength, but
on the Lord who can even raise the dead, Paul says.
2. Trials
correct and build our faith
According to Luke 17:5 the apostles said to the Lord “Increase our faith”. If there is one thing that increases our faith, it is trials. This is why the Lord’s brother says in James 1:2-4 “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
One of the reasons why God brings trials into our lives is to increase our faith in Him. It is to make us rely on Him more. By trials the Lord calls us back to Him where we will meet with his grace, mercy and strength.
Trials may cause anxiety and worry in our hearts, but the answer to these are in trusting the Lord. If we trust the Lord, He will carry us through our trials and all our worry and anxiety will subside. I am not saying that the tears will necessarily disappear, they may remain, but anxiety will be replaced by trust.
The Christian life is lived in the real world with real troubles. Real fears, real issues, real problems. But as real as these issues are, so real is our God and so real is also His strength and ability to help us overcome these. I have found that trials are the very thing that not only questions my faith, but it is also the very thing that strengthens my faith. It helps me consider my ways, to see if there is any wicked ways in me from which I must repent, so it corrects me, it leads me to the right path. It also makes me aware that in my own strength I am to weak to go through this. It therefore turns me to God, to rely on Him, to trust Him, to hold on to Him, it builds up my faith in ways that a trial-less life wasn’t able to do, knowing that the Lord is able to do far more than your trail demands and He will never forsake His children.
Even this was placed in your path not to weaken your faith or to harm
you, but to strengthen your faith by helping you grow and rely on Him all the
more. Trials are ultimately intended to
give us hope, Paul says in Romans 5:3-4. Listen to how he puts it: “Not only
that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces
endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.”
So suffering produces in the believer the ability to endure through it. This produces a more godly character in us,
and through it all, it gives us hope that our God is true, our faith in Him is
true, and therefore we have hope. Hope not
only to go through this trial, but hope that we will receive eternal life,
because God is faithful to His children.
In 2 Corinthians 4:17 Paul says “For this light
momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all
comparison.” This is true of the
believer, and yes, this relates to suffering for the faith in particular. But the reason why the end of the believer is
“an eternal weight in glory beyond all comparison”, is exactly
because through the trial he endures in his faith, grows in His Christlikeness
and thus have hope of eternal life.
3. Trials
leads us to glorify God
Listen to how 1 Peter 4:16 puts it: “If anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.” Let me remind you of what a number of verses that we have already looked at said:
·
1 Peter 1:6 “In this you
rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved
by various trials”.
· James 1:2 “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds”.
· Philippians 1:29 “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in Him but also suffer for His sake.”
Imagine that instead of anxiety and worry, our trials will lead us to thank the Lord that He has given us this opportunity, not only to see if our faith is real, but correct our sinful ways and strengthen our faith. Imagine if instead of being overwhelmed by our circumstances, we stand overwhelmed at the sovereignty of God who even through this, and by this, will work together all things for our good.
Trials are intended, as Paul said
in 2 Corinthians 1:9 “to make us rely not on ourselves but
on God who raises the dead.” It
is intended to make us realise that God is far greater than we have imagined
and can be trusted. The only acceptable
response to this has to be to glorify Him who is indeed worthy of all praise,
even in times of trial.
As a Christian there may come times where you are faced with trials. Whether they are big trials or small trials, God is well able to carry you through them and even use them to grow your faith. He has a purpose for these, and the purpose He has for this, is the purpose He has for everything that happens, it is for His glory.
Through this we find a reason to rejoice in the Lord, in the
midst of whatever you are facing, and bring glory to His worthy Name.
Amen