Trials Are For Trusting God More

These tough circumstances have happened many times in my life.

God wants us to trust Him. He wants us to believe that He is coming through for us. He wants us to trust Him to come through for us every time.

Yet ... the temptation for us to do something, to fall into our own efforts, to wonder if He will come through for us is so strong.

Isn't it, though?

Remember that it was 20 years before God blessed Abraham and Sarah with the child of promise. It was many years after that before God told Abraham to offer up his son Isaac. Abraham had experienced so much of God's goodness, He had seen God come through for him every time.

There was nothing holding him back from offering up Isaac as a sacrifice.

Why?

The writer of Hebrews answers that question perfectly:

"17By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: 19Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure." (Hebrews 11:17-19)

The beginning of this powerful chapter, from which this account is drawn, begins:

"1And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am." (Genesis 22:1)

The word "Tempt" is a little off. The better term would be "test" or "try", the same way that a metal smith tests gold and silver, to ensure that it is pure.

God was not setting up Abraham to see whether he would succeed or fail. God put him through this trial to show the type of faith that our beloved Father of Faith Abraham really had!

Abraham so trusted God, that he foresaw God bringing his son back from the dead. Abraham both knew and believed that God loved him, loved Isaac, and that he would bring him back to life. He had to, since through Isaac all the nations of the world would be blessed. "From whence he received him in a figure," Abraham received indeed. Isaac served as the type and shadow of Jesus, God's only Begotten Son, who would be delivered up for all the sins of the world, who would be brought back from the dead, and through Him indeed all the nations of the world would be blessed.

To this day, the world is blessed, for those who believe on Christ Jesus!

So, the trials that I have faced manifold times in my life ... I must say that I have had my fair share of them. God wants me to see Him not just as the only source, but the best source out there. In Mark 4, the disciples could cry out to no one but the Lord Jesus, who was soundly asleep on a pillow while the winds raged and the waters flooded their boat.

Think about it -- if Jesus is sound asleep, what did they really have to worry about? He was asleep, but the disciples feared the worst. Worst yet, they did not know who was in the boat with them. "And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?" (Mark 4:38)

They saw Him as Master, not Savior.

They saw Him as uncaring, but He has never ceased caring for us.

They thought they were perishing, when The Way, the Truth, and the Life was in the boat with them!

Yet even despite all of this, Jesus rose up and quieted the storms with one word. They still feared, though:

"41And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" (Mark 4:41)

As for me, I want to get to that point where I never doubt His love for me. Ever.

I welcome every trial, for each trial grants me the grace to see that He is not only on my side, but He is prepared to save me, succor me, and secure me from the worst out there. I want to know Him better than before. I am so glad to that He loves me as much as all that and then some. This is great!

Trials are all about trusting God more, so that He can grace us with more, since we will rely less on our own flesh and more on His Love, His Grace, His Goodness.

What is new to me, though, is that this sense of "being stuck", of being stuck between the Pharaoh and the Deep Red Sea is very much part of the Christian life, the life that Jesus gives to us:

"In him was life; and the life was the light of men." (John 1:4)

We should not fear unspeakable hardships. The more dire the situation, the more that we can rest assured that He will rush in to help us.

I look back over my life, and there were many "last minute saves". Sometimes it seems that there were simply too many, as though there was something wrong with me. Was I making mistakes? Did I somehow miss what God was trying to do? What was He saying? What was He doing? Where did I go wrong? Did I do anything right?

At the end of it all, it became crystal clear to -- and has only become clearer since then -- that He has been watching with me, working with me, working in me, and working all around me to be guided by His grace.

The trials are wonderful, that I may trust Him more, and there is such joy in that, to see Him come through for me.

AMEN!

Be Honest With God: Tell Him If You Don't Trust Him

"9If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;

"10Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." (Psalm 139: 9-10)

This verse is pretty compelling.

Essential, David declares that the more we try to run from God, the closer that we get to Him!

People who try to run from God, who don't want to believe in Him, but at the same time resist and fight against Him, are actually demonstrating faith in Him.

They recognize His existence.

But faith is about so much more, that we believe He is a rewarder:

"But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." (Hebrews 11:6)

Now, if we are facing hard times, it's OK to admit to God that we don't trust Him, or at least that we are not sure He can accomplish a great work in our lives and in our times.

Abram asked God how He was going to grant him a grand inheritance:

"2And Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?" (Genesis 15:2)

God didn't get angry with Abram, but showed him the stars in the heavens. Then God cut a covenant with Himself (through His Son Jesus) to affirm His promise.

"17And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces." (Genesis 15:17)

Let's fast-forward to the days of the prophets. Jeremiah was particularly skeptical about God's restoring the Israelites to their land, even while the Babylonians were surrounding Jerusalem.

Yet God instructed Jeremiah to redeem land from one of his relatives. Jeremiah praised God, and he acknowledged the great things that God has done for His people, and then he saw the terrible things that they had done to break their covenant with God.  After all of this, Jeremiah's concerns pierced through:

"24Behold the mounts, they are come unto the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans, that fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence: and what thou hast spoken is come to pass; and, behold, thou seest it. 25And thou hast said unto me, O Lord GOD, Buy thee the field for money, and take witnesses; for the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans." (Jeremiah 32: 24-25)

God did not shut down Jeremiah, but reminded him of who He is:

"26Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah, saying, 27Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?" (Jeremiah 32:26-27)

Is anything too hard for God?

Be honest with God, that you are struggling to believe that He can accomplish what you need in your life.

Jesus brought His faith in to assist the faith of a father distraught over his son:

"22and many times also it cast him into fire, and into water, that it might destroy him; but if thou art able to do anything, help us, having compassion on us.’ 23And Jesus said to him, ‘If thou art able to believe! all things are possible to the one that is believing;’ 24and immediately the father of the child, having cried out, with tears said, ‘I believe, sir; be helping mine unbelief.’" (Mark 9:22-24, Youngs)

Jesus is always believing, even when we struggle to believe. God knows our frail state, and He understands our weaknesses.

But that does not mean we cannot run to Him:

"For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. 16Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:15-16)

Magnifying the LORD

"O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together." (Psalm 34:3)

I have heard many times that "magnify" does not mean that we have to make God bigger.

He is already omnipotent and all-encompassing.

It means that we place our focus and attention on him.

I further realized that it means that we stop making problems in our midst the focus, the attention on our minds.

I was looking at my status in life, and I had found myself comparing myself to others.

I asked questions about the future, the past, and I wondered if I was on the wrong track or if I needed to find a different path.

Once again, now that I look at the last two weeks, I realize that I was making my future bigger than God. I was making my concerns about tomorrow and the next day more important than God Himself. He who has been from the beginning Jesus Christ.

It's time for us to recognize that there is nothing, absolutely nothing to big for Him.

We need to spend less time worrying and wondering about tomorrow--as though he can't handle it.

We need to stop thinking that our future is just an amorphous mess over which He has no power. None of this is true.

We need to stop making our problems seem larger than they are. They simple are not.

"My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me." (Psalm 31:15)