The Purposes of Trials Part One

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© www.godsbreathpublications.com

 

One thing for sure in this life, we will face trials. They are hard, difficult and often overwhelming. The big question we ask in such situations is, “Why is this happening!” It helps sometimes to know why a trial has come into our life. It can give some purpose and reason for the struggle we strive to endure. So let’s examine some possible purposes that God may have in the trials He allows to come into our lives. As we look on these godly purposes for trials, we must understand that sometimes trials may come for more than one reason, and this is all designed and allowed by God who gives us sufficient resources to endure and overcome anything we might face in life.

 

Purpose One

Trials come to test the strength of our faith.

 

God will often permit trials to come into our lives to test our faith and to reveal how strong our faith in Him really is. We can claim to have deep, committed and strong faith with our words, but there is something about a specific hard trial that enters our life that can prove whether our words are true or not. When we have to really demonstrate our faith in action, in the midst of a trial, that is where our faith is validated for what it is. King Hezekiah is an example of this.

 

In 2 Chronicles 32 we see the Lord saving Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem from Assyria. Hezekiah had faith in God, but also had a proud heart. Because of his pride, God was displeased with him, but Hezekiah repented of this evil pride and therefore God blessed Him and the people he ruled over. The rulers of Babylon came to Hezekiah to ask why he and his people were so blessed. Here a situation of testing arises, a trial you might say, for King Hezekiah. God wanted to demonstrate the reality of what was in Hezekiah’s heart. So in verse 31 of chapter 32 it says, “God left him to test him and to know everything that was in his heart.” God left Hezekiah to let him live out his faith and show Hezekiah what was really in his heart. God already knew what was in his heart, but wanted to allow a trial to come to reveal the substance of his faith in God. Our Heavenly Father knows everything about our faith. How strong it is. How deep it is. What the substance of it is. But we don’t. Often there is a gap between the perception we have of our faith and what it is in reality. We need to face the true depth of our faith to realize that we need to grow in it; otherwise we deceive ourselves and claim to have strong faith when in actuality it is weak. Once we know the depth of our faith, we can begin to seek, with the Lord’s help, to increase it. God does not want us to live in a delusion about our spiritual health. Trials will reveal to us that we need to work on our faith by trusting Jesus more in all aspects of our lives.

 

In Deuteronomy 8:2-3 we see that God tested the Jews in their journey to the promise land for the same purpose. It says, “Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.” God already knew the answer, but wanted the Jews to realize the level of their commitment for themselves. We also must come to this same realization. How true and dedicated are we in our faith. Trials will test this.

 

Purpose Two

Trials come to humble us.

 

There is something about a difficult trial that will humble you. The pride of your abilities, intellect and talents seem to fade very quickly when a trial walks into your life. You realize how feeble, weak and insufficient your resources are and how lacking you are in strength to endure and cope. 1 Corinthians 10:12 gives us a warning about our pride. It says, “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” It is a warning about pride which is the opposite of humility. Our foundation for strength in living our lives must be built on the Lord, His Word and His Spirit. Anything else will be weak and frail. Personal pride that says, “I can handle anything!” is soon to be shown to be false when an appropriate difficult trial is allowed to enter our life. True strength of faith comes when we realize, in humility, that we stand strong only when we humbly rely upon our Lord and Savior through our faith in Him and His sufficiency to supply our needs.

 

Conceit is another aspect of pride. The Apostle Paul had a thorn of a trial in his life to prevent him from being conceited. He had much to be conceited about from a human perspective. He had education, determination, intelligence, tact and special revelations from the Lord. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 tells us about this thorny personal trial, “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

 

Paul probably felt he could handle his pride and that’s why he prayed for the thorn to be removed, but God knew better. The Lord knew that unless this thorn remained in Paul’s life he would fall into a pride that he might never recover from and that would frustrate how God might use Paul, so the thorn remained, the trial persisted. Pride is a universal fault of all of us to one degree or another. If a trial is in your life, consider the possibility that it might be that some degree of pride is in need of being revealed so it can be dealt with.

 

Purpose Three

Trials come to wean us from worldly things.

 

Having money, possessions and the comforts of life are not bad in and of themselves. But when they begin to become more important than the Lord and our relationship with Him, God will allow a trial to come to re-center us on Him. He knows long before we do, when worldly things that we possess become more important than Him. Trials can come in our lives, allowed by the Lord, to wean us away from these distractions of a higher calling. You’ve seen it in the movies where a man will be on a long journey and looks down at his compass. He is suspicious about whether it is pointing in the right direction so will tap it once or twice. The needle bounces for a second or two then moves to true North. This is what a trial can be in the midst of the pleasures of this life. It can be a tap on the compass of our life to make sure that our focus is pointed only at the Lord. A situation of this type of testing or trial took place when Jesus and His disciples were faced with the task of feeding over 5,000 people. Jesus asked Philip in John 6:5, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” Philip saw the trial with faithless eyes and focused on the limited resources in the midst of an overwhelming need. Verse 6 reveals Jesus’ purpose behind His question, “He asked this only to test him, for He already had in mind what He was going to do.” Philip replies with weak faith in verse 7, “Eight months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” The situation was beyond the understanding of Philip’s weak faith. Jesus wished to test Philip and Jesus may wish to test our faith at times in similar fashion. When we can’t see beyond our own resources or when we begin to enjoy worldly things more than our relationship with the Lord, our Heavenly Father may intervene by allowing a trial to come to wean us off of our dependence or addiction to worldly things. I know in my own life I have been amazed at how little I need to live on when the need arises. Things I thought I could not live without have disappeared and I have survived. I discovered that when things I thought I had to have in order to be happy, when taken from me, the joy of the Lord appeared as I contemplated what truly mattered in life. Again, there is nothing necessarily evil about material objects, comforts and conveniences nor recreational hobbies and interests, but when they begin to creep up on the pedestal of whom we worship, our Lord, then they need to be beaten back to their proper place and a trial can often do the job.

 

Purpose Four

Trials come to call us to an eternal hope.

 

Trials can come at times to give us a heavenly perspective of our eternal hope in the future. Sometimes a trial can be so harsh and difficult that the only thing that keeps us going is a faithful focus on our hope in the Lord. When a trial strips you of the things in this life, all that is left is the hope you have in the Lord and the life to come. Romans chapter 8 speaks about how we are heirs to God’s Kingdom. Romans 8:16-25, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs — heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us…We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” Trials can cause us to groan for our Heavenly home, the glorified bodies we will inhabit, the experience and knowledge of being constantly in the presence of the Lord in Heaven. Trials which bring this realization build our faith and bring godly hope back into the forefront of our spirit, mind and soul. Trials can re-center us and stabilize us in our faith that rests on the eternal hope we have as heirs of God. Such trials provide a divine purpose of reminding us of our inheritance as saints and children of our Heavenly Father. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 also addresses this truth when it says, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Samuel Smiles has said, “Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.”

 

Purpose Five

Trials come to reveal what we really love.

 

Trials can come at times to expose what we deeply love more than anything else. Sometimes this can often surprise us. We thought we were centered in the Lord, but when we have to make a choice between a possession or a hobby and the Lord, where does our heart lie? Even a relationship with someone can have inappropriate priority in our life. In the gospels we are told to love God with all our heart, mind and soul. What happens when we place something else there instead, even a person? We are told in Genesis 22 that God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. When I first read this story as a young boy I thought God was crazy, yes crazy. But then I realized that God allowed this trial in Abraham’s life to demonstrate to Abraham how much he really loved God. Thankfully Abraham passed the test and God intervened. Luke 14:26 discusses similar situations involving a person’s dedication to be a disciple of Christ. God wants to show us where our love truly lies and sometimes the only way to do this is through a trial. Trials separate the men from the boys and allow us to discern where our love is focused. God strips away all pretenses and casual comments of commitment to reveal what we truly love when he puts us through a trial sometimes. What do you really love? Do you love God with all your heart mind and soul? If so, could you endure a trial that would test your words of profession?

 

In part two of this series we’ll discover five more purposes for the trials that God allows to come into our lives. God is constantly working out His will in our life and He often uses trials and hardships to accomplish this.