The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith
Training By Testing
When “bad” things happen to Christians, we frequently wonder what they have done in the past to deserve it. The Bible is clear that tribulation and suffering are not necessarily deserved or earned. Reasons for trials in a Christian’s life include God’s training by testing, God’s glory, the spread of the gospel, Satan’s sieve, or the consequences of unconfessed sin. Training by testing is the topic of this week’s devotional.
I took a trip down memory lane this week as I watched the video from Dan’s parents’ Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary celebration in 1987. Some of the comments included the heritage of a godly mother and father being seen in their children following the Lord. As they aged there were increasingly difficult medical issues that would have daunted the faith of many Christians. But for Bruce and Bert Merritt, they only seemed to confirm an ever-increasing faith as they neared the end of their lives some seventeen years later. Case in point: On her last day on earth Mom Merritt was sharing the gospel with the nurses taking care of her in the Emergency room.
The apostle Paul was saved as a result of a painful encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. His eyesight was permanently damaged because of the intense light he saw that day. It is thought that the thorn in the flesh of 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 refers to this injury to his eyes. After asking the Lord three times to remove the infirmity, God told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9a). Paul’s response should be our response to trials and illness: “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Cor. 12:9b-10).
He wrote about afflictions in terms of Heaven and eternity: “For which cause we faint not but, though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor 4:16-18).
Peter chimes in with a similar take on trials: “Wherein you greatly rejoice. Though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:6-9). Peter further clarifies the sequence of the learning curve involved in a Christian’s training by testing: “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; to knowledge temperance; to temperance patience; to patience godliness; to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity” (2 Peter1:5-7).
In the middle of our training by testing we need to turn more and more towards the inward presence of Jesus through prayer, reading God’s Word, and meditating on it. By faith we see and believe the biblical promises He gave us. The outcome is an absorbed resting in God’s peace, protection, and direction: “When we finally get to the point of understanding what it means to “live the promises”, a curious thing happens. We no longer have to rebuke Satan as often. He tries to find other, more subtle ways to distract us with deeper issues; but we are at the center of peace and we are not distracted by our circumstances. God begins to show us those sins that have remained deeply ingrained and deeply hidden from even our own eyes (remember Job? It happened to him, too!). God is able to continue to purify us. For example, pride is a sin I deal with constantly. There is no room for pride when God has stripped everything away and we stand before Him with nothing except the faith that He has given us. Even faith is not our own, but God’s (Eph. 2:8). There is no room for pride when God is allowed to be Lord. In addition, peace is the order of the day; and it is a peace that cannot possibly come from me, only from God” (The Culture of Hope Founded on Faith, pp. 97-98).
Finally, the ultimate goal for each of our trainings by testing is to bring us increasingly into God’s original purpose for creating us: “Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever” (Heb. 12:20-21).
