We may be familiar with scriptures I know I have used many times to encourage myself that is found in Rom 8:37 when God tells us that we are more than conquerors through Christ who loves us. When some would believe that because we are more than conquerors, that we shouldn't expect any trials to come our way that is a false concept of having that winning mindset. When you read the previous 2 verses just before this powerful promise, it mentions about Paul going through many trials. We need to see the positiveness and necessity of trials for several reasons. I think God allows us also to go through just enough trials no matter what so that we don't ever find ourselves unprepared when He does return. Otherwise, we may be like Lots wife who looked back because she longed to go back to where she came from. God tells us that when we do, we won't be fit for His Kingdom (Luke 9:62). Instead of being blessed by looking ahead, she became a pillar of salt and remained (Gen 19:26). Perhaps if she went through further trials, she would have refused to ever look back and be better prepared to enter the promised land which the Lord had prepared for her to enter in to. Another reason why God allows us to go through trials is so that we won't become self-sufficient and a sense of feeling secure that ends up living dangerously by being independent of God. When we do, we fail to pursue and rely on God who is the One who sustains us with every breath we breathe, whether we know it or not. That is why God is not pleased with us when we don't acknowledge His goodness, His mercy and hand of protection upon us when in fact if He were to turn His back on us for one moment, we wouldn't survive the next breath. God Himself became angry with a nation that became secure by being self satisfied and self-reliant rather than seeing their need of God (Zech 1:15).
For myself, I now see my trials as beneficial when I consider how much more I desire to see His coming. That doesn't mean that we don't learn to enjoy and be content with our lives because He died and suffered to the point so He could offer us the abundant life (John 10:10). However, when we do go through trials, the affections of this world no longer attract us and ever distract us from having that hopeful desire and longing to be with Him. Through these trials, we learn to be hopeful to be in His presence in Heaven which is far greater than attaining any earthly ambitions because we should never call this temporal life our home, when our home (where we set our heart) should be in the eternal realm where Peace, Hope and love in this Kingdom never ends. For God tells us that where our treasure is, this is where our hearts desire is (Luke 12:34). In Heb 11:16, God tells us that when we do long for His coming, He is not ashamed to call us His Children because of it.
If we didn't have to deal with injustice from the trials we go through, we wouldn't learn how to fight for one another when they deal with injustice as the Lord would want us to. We wouldn't know how to stand up for what is right when we see wrong happening and band together as Gods mighty prayer warriors. We wouldn't be as passionate to fight against the principalities of darkness in our persistent prayers and pursue prayers of intercession one for another. When others are being discouraged by circumstances, we wouldn't be as effective to be able to encourage each other like the Bible tells us to. When everything is going "right" by defining what we think is just a life of ease, contentment, we wouldn't be able to reach out to others and be used mightily that God can use and we may not be able to use what God purposed us to use. It reminds me of a story when a person was going through trials and he sought the comfort of others going through the similar trials. However, when this person started to get back on his feet, he soon forgot his other friends he met through counsel groups and he soon left and was no longer around to help counsel others. How we soon forget others pain when we no longer carry any burdens ourselves. These type of people who soon forget have simply gone through trials all for nothing because they desired to see it only benefit themselves rather than seeing how they could benefit others which Gods desire for us is. We forfeit so much blessings when we live for "self" when God Himself will tell us that we will not be rewarded because we already received our just reward. It reminds me of Jobs friends who should have encouraged him rather than try to use worldly-wisdom which only aggravated him. Had his friends gone through what Job was encountering, I believe his friends would have been much more effective to properly console and be a strength to him when he needed understanding and not mere feeble words of wisdom which we find out was not Godly wisdom in the first place. If we are going through trials, some of the questions we may need to ask ourselves is:
How am I coping through these trials? Is this drawing me towards God, am I becoming stronger in the Lord or am I drawing away from Him? If we are being drawn away from Him, could that mean that we have our ambitions and setting our affections in the wrong place? Do we hope to make it through trials to simply live a life of ease, or do we long to be a blessing to other people? Are we mindful of serving "self" or serving others? We need to realize that we are created to be used to worship Him (Isa 43:7), to be a blessing to others and reflect Gods glory so others can be drawn to Him through us. If we see how we may be going through trials when God is trying to get our attention, we need to be thankful that we see Gods mercy towards us by helping us get our attention to turn to Him so we can set our priorities as God would have it. He wants us to set our ambitions and store for ourselves treasures in Heaven where the rewards are far greater than storing treasures of this world where it will eventually separate itself from you. For we entered the world naked and we will leave this world just as naked (Job 1:21). So what good is attaining all this ambition for only a brief moment in time to forsake our eternal destiny? Going through trials just may be helping us to set our priorities right. It was only after going through trials that I no longer have the affections it once had a strong hold on me. God desires to reward us with eternal rewards when all along, we may be fighting against Him to be rewarded on earth that will cause us to lose our eternal rewards just to get a moments glory. Therefore, we need to see trials as something positive which is what James 1:1-5 tells us. We need to refuse to see that trials in our lives is simply not a matter of misfortune of events, but to see this as shaping us to be more stronger in the Lord, more useful for the Lord and be better prepared and receive the greater rewards when we do come to our eternal home. I find when we go through trials, we become much stronger and useful for God because these set of events often cause us to come to a cross-roads in our lives by choosing to head upward on that narrow path, or head on the broad road that leads to destruction (Matt 7:13).
If we are going to benefit from the trials we have or are enduring, we need to Rise-Up with a victorious attitude and fearlessly make up our mind to choose Gods way. We need to boldly declare that by Gods Grace and the Help of His Spirit, we are going to be better people through it. So in the end when our works are tried by fire, we won't suffer loss, but will reap a far greater eternal inheritance because we have become determine through trials to have that steadfast Hope in God and be the people He can use for His glorious purposes (1 Cor 3:12-15). It helps to see a bigger picture that our momentary troubles we go through on earth will not be compared to the eternal glory that will be revealed in us (Rom 8:18). When we see our eternal inheritance and how God shaped us through trials when we dare to trust in Him regardless, we will receive the greater rewards of our eternal inheritance through the trials we had endured because we came to the place where we made a commitment to live for the Lord and trust Him regardless.
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In the Matchless Name of Jesus
Richard
Associate Director
Answers2Prayerhttp://sites.google.com/site/greatestbuilderforourlife
http://www.answers2prayer.org/
In the Matchless Name of Jesus
Richard
Associate Director
Answers2Prayerhttp://sites.google.com/site/greatestbuilderforourlife
http://www.answers2prayer.org/
What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? (Rom 8:31)
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