Deuteronomy 8:2 (ESV) “And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.”
God led the Israelites through the wilderness for 40 years. It was not easy roaming around in the wilderness. They had no homeland. They moved from place to place. It had to be tiring and frustrating for the people of Israel. The Bible, in Deut 8:2 points out a very specific purpose for their wilderness experience. God wanted to humble them. This is the same word we saw in Psalm 119:67 translated “afflicted”. By humbling them in their wilderness experience, God was able to remove some of the obstacles that prevented their growth as people of God.
The verse then says that He humbled them so He would know their hearts. I ask myself… ”Why would God need to test the people to know their hearts? He knows the heart of man better than man knows his own heart.” Think of it this way. Have you ever asked a difficult question of your children for which you already knew the answer? You may coach them along a little bit depending on their knowledge level and age. You watch them wrestle with it. You can “see the wheels turning” in their mind. Eventually, they get the right answer. They arrive at the conclusion you already knew. And when they finally get it right they have learned the more for having “worked“ for the answer.
Oftentimes, our Heavenly Father does the same with us. He “Tests us to know what is in our hearts”. In all actuality He wants us to know what is in our hearts. He gives us a problem to wrestle with. He knows the answer and could easily give it to us. But then we would lose out on the growth that comes from experience. We need the hard times and trials of life so we can come to know ourselves. As we go through life we can deceive ourselves into thinking everything is OK. All is well. We are doing just fine. Our lives are in perfect harmony. Or so we think. Then God places us in a difficult circumstance or trial and we begin to see just how “not so good” things are. Our eyes are opened to our shortcomings. We learn just how frail we really are.
This is a good thing! For when we see ourselves in our weakness, we have no real choice but to cling to His strength. Trusting completely in Him is such a great place to be. Think about it! He looks deep within our hearts and sees an area of weakness. He gives us the “question” like a Father does a small child. He coaches us and guides us to the desired conclusion. He cares for us all along the rocky road until we reach the “answer” to the question. We are humbled. The light finally comes on and we see within ourselves what He knew all along. Our gracious Heavenly Father has, faithfully helped us to grow more into the likeness of His Son.
I want to encourage you in your trials of life to allow God to show you who you really are deep down inside. It may not be easy but it will be worth the effort. Your walk with Him will be sweeter and more intimate. Let God work through your trial to humble you and draw you closer to Him. Let Him remove some of the “you” that gets in the way of a deeper relationship with Him. God bless you!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Trials of Life - Psalm 119:67
Psalms 119:67 (ESV) “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.”
David was a man much afflicted with Trials of Life. Sometimes trials came his way through no fault of his own. He was pursued by King Saul because of Saul’s jealousy and fear. He later had a series of difficult times because of his sin with Bath-sheba. Throughout the Psalms he writes much about afflictions, trials and difficult times. David, no doubt, learned much from the trials he went through. Here in Psalm 119:67 he gives us a little insight into one of the “why’s” of afflictions and trials.
David tells us that he had gone astray but through affliction he was brought back to obedience of God’s Word. The word used here for afflicted means also to be oppressed or humbled. God humbled David by afflicting him and in doing so He caused David to see his sin. He repented of that sin and turned again to God. He began to walk with God as he had before he went astray.
God uses trials and difficulties to humble us and convict us of our sin. He wants us to walk with Him and when we stray off course He will sometimes use hard times to achieve the desired result of repentance and reconciliation. If you are steering a ship or driving a car you have experienced “drifting off course”. We must continually make small course corrections to keep the car or ship going in the right direction. I remember when I was first learning to drive and wanted to hold the steering wheel completely still. I would drift off to one side of the road or the other and would have to turn the wheel slightly to stay in the middle of the road. It didn’t take long to figure out that I had to continually make these small steering corrections to compensate for the uneven road conditions, wind, and even play in the steering of the vehicle. God often uses the trying times of our lives to steer us back on course.
Does this mean that every “bad thing” that happens to us is a result of some terrible sin? Absolutely not! We need to be very careful not to cast blame when we are suffering in difficult times. When we start casting blame, we begin with ourselves. We can then move on to our circumstances or other people. Often in the blame-game we end up blaming God. So don’t start down that road. Accept the fact that sometimes it just rains. Sometimes the sun shines. Jesus said in Matthew 5:44-45 (ESV) “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
There is no doubt that we are sinners. We live in a sinful world and we constantly battle our sinful flesh. We are prone to sin so we should use occasions of trials and tribulation to search out our hearts, confess our sins and ensure that we are in walking in obedience to God. Whatever the “cause” of our trial is, we can rest assured that God is always on our side. He knows what we are going through. He may be just bringing some rain (with the accompanying thunder and lightning) or He may be trying to steer us back on course with some affliction. God bless you!
David was a man much afflicted with Trials of Life. Sometimes trials came his way through no fault of his own. He was pursued by King Saul because of Saul’s jealousy and fear. He later had a series of difficult times because of his sin with Bath-sheba. Throughout the Psalms he writes much about afflictions, trials and difficult times. David, no doubt, learned much from the trials he went through. Here in Psalm 119:67 he gives us a little insight into one of the “why’s” of afflictions and trials.
David tells us that he had gone astray but through affliction he was brought back to obedience of God’s Word. The word used here for afflicted means also to be oppressed or humbled. God humbled David by afflicting him and in doing so He caused David to see his sin. He repented of that sin and turned again to God. He began to walk with God as he had before he went astray.
God uses trials and difficulties to humble us and convict us of our sin. He wants us to walk with Him and when we stray off course He will sometimes use hard times to achieve the desired result of repentance and reconciliation. If you are steering a ship or driving a car you have experienced “drifting off course”. We must continually make small course corrections to keep the car or ship going in the right direction. I remember when I was first learning to drive and wanted to hold the steering wheel completely still. I would drift off to one side of the road or the other and would have to turn the wheel slightly to stay in the middle of the road. It didn’t take long to figure out that I had to continually make these small steering corrections to compensate for the uneven road conditions, wind, and even play in the steering of the vehicle. God often uses the trying times of our lives to steer us back on course.
Does this mean that every “bad thing” that happens to us is a result of some terrible sin? Absolutely not! We need to be very careful not to cast blame when we are suffering in difficult times. When we start casting blame, we begin with ourselves. We can then move on to our circumstances or other people. Often in the blame-game we end up blaming God. So don’t start down that road. Accept the fact that sometimes it just rains. Sometimes the sun shines. Jesus said in Matthew 5:44-45 (ESV) “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
There is no doubt that we are sinners. We live in a sinful world and we constantly battle our sinful flesh. We are prone to sin so we should use occasions of trials and tribulation to search out our hearts, confess our sins and ensure that we are in walking in obedience to God. Whatever the “cause” of our trial is, we can rest assured that God is always on our side. He knows what we are going through. He may be just bringing some rain (with the accompanying thunder and lightning) or He may be trying to steer us back on course with some affliction. God bless you!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
James 1:3,4
James 1:2-4 (ESV) "2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."
Besides learning to choose joy or command or be in charge of our own joy in verse two, James gives us two other benefits of going through trials or temptations. In verse three he writes that the trials and testing we go through produce steadfastness, or as the KJV puts it, patience. The idea of the word here is “to bear up under, to endure, to be patient regarding things or circumstances”. The specific things or circumstances here being the testing and trying of our faith. It comes from a root word that means to stay under voluntarily, to remain under.
Another word that needs examining is the word “let” in verse 4. This word means to have and hold or to have continued possession of. This idea adds a new dimension to patience or steadfastness. As is choosing or commanding joy, James is telling us that for patience to be fully effective or to come to fruition in our life, we must have possession of that patience by voluntarily staying in the trial that is causing us so much pain, or sorrow or hardship.
It is so easy to try to seek a way out of the trials of life but we should carefully consider the consequences of escape. As a prison worker I have had many classes on how to be a hostage if that unpleasant situation were to ever occur. One of the things we are always taught is to carefully consider that consequences of trying to escape the hostage takers. If you fail will it bring more harm to you? If you succeed will the hostage takers become more aggressive to your fellow hostages who were left behind in your escape? If we, as Christians, try to escape the trials of life will we leave behind a hostage? The very thing God is trying to accomplish in your life may very well be left undone in your escape. God wants us to “let” patience work in our lives. Takes ownership of it and don’t try to escape. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:13 (ESV) “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” Don’t be confused here by the word escape. The context tells us that Paul is not talking about escape out of a trial but escape by going through it and enduring it.
Lastly, in verse 4, James tells us that is we will stay in the trial; if we will bear up under the circumstances; if we will let patience work; if we will do these things we will grow to maturity in Christ, perfect and complete. He also states we will be lacking in nothing. This is obviously not a statement of having everything we want or think we want. It means we will gain everything from trial that God intended us to gain. We will lack nothing from the lesson of the trial.
If you are going through a very difficult time right now, I urge you to consider these words. Choose joy. Don’t try to rush out of the trial. Let patience work in you. Learn what God is trying to teach you. Become the mature Christian He wants you to be. I can assure you that even though doing these things may be hard it will pay off in the end. God bless you in your trial of life.
Besides learning to choose joy or command or be in charge of our own joy in verse two, James gives us two other benefits of going through trials or temptations. In verse three he writes that the trials and testing we go through produce steadfastness, or as the KJV puts it, patience. The idea of the word here is “to bear up under, to endure, to be patient regarding things or circumstances”. The specific things or circumstances here being the testing and trying of our faith. It comes from a root word that means to stay under voluntarily, to remain under.
Another word that needs examining is the word “let” in verse 4. This word means to have and hold or to have continued possession of. This idea adds a new dimension to patience or steadfastness. As is choosing or commanding joy, James is telling us that for patience to be fully effective or to come to fruition in our life, we must have possession of that patience by voluntarily staying in the trial that is causing us so much pain, or sorrow or hardship.
It is so easy to try to seek a way out of the trials of life but we should carefully consider the consequences of escape. As a prison worker I have had many classes on how to be a hostage if that unpleasant situation were to ever occur. One of the things we are always taught is to carefully consider that consequences of trying to escape the hostage takers. If you fail will it bring more harm to you? If you succeed will the hostage takers become more aggressive to your fellow hostages who were left behind in your escape? If we, as Christians, try to escape the trials of life will we leave behind a hostage? The very thing God is trying to accomplish in your life may very well be left undone in your escape. God wants us to “let” patience work in our lives. Takes ownership of it and don’t try to escape. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:13 (ESV) “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” Don’t be confused here by the word escape. The context tells us that Paul is not talking about escape out of a trial but escape by going through it and enduring it.
Lastly, in verse 4, James tells us that is we will stay in the trial; if we will bear up under the circumstances; if we will let patience work; if we will do these things we will grow to maturity in Christ, perfect and complete. He also states we will be lacking in nothing. This is obviously not a statement of having everything we want or think we want. It means we will gain everything from trial that God intended us to gain. We will lack nothing from the lesson of the trial.
If you are going through a very difficult time right now, I urge you to consider these words. Choose joy. Don’t try to rush out of the trial. Let patience work in you. Learn what God is trying to teach you. Become the mature Christian He wants you to be. I can assure you that even though doing these things may be hard it will pay off in the end. God bless you in your trial of life.
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