SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 08-18-2003
My
Worship Time Focus: How to rejoice in
trials
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: James 1:3
Message
of the verse: “3 Knowing that the
testing of your faith produces endurance.”
(NASB) “For when faith is tested,
your endurance has a chance to grow.”
(NLT)
What does
the Bible teach us that makes it easier to face trials and to also benefit by
them? Dr. Wiersbe speaks of three things
that the Bible teaches us. The first one
is faith is always
tested. The Bible teaches us that God
tests us to bring out our best, but Satan tempts us to bring out the worst in
us. There are a number of
examples of believers being tested by God in order to strengthen our
faith. Abraham was certainly tested by
God on a number of occasions. The
biggest test for Abraham was the offering up of Isaac as a burnt offering
before God saw that he would do this and provided a lamb for the offering. Moses was tested many times by the Lord to
improve his faith, as was David, and Paul, and many others. As you read through the 11th
chapter of Hebrews you see that in this great chapter on the faith of these
many believers that if you look into there lives there were many tests of God
to improve their faith.
The second
reason Dr. Wiersbe gives is trials
rightly used help us to mature. God desires us to be mature in our faith and
patience is one of the marks of a mature believer, and patience is developed by
trials. You cannot learn patience or
endurance from the reading of a book, or listening to a sermon, or even praying
a prayer. Believers must go through the
difficulties of life, and trust the Lord and obey him to bring about
patience. As we learn this patience through
trials then we can look upon the trials as joy, for we will know why God has
allowed them to come into our lives, which is for our good, and His glory, our
good because the work out to mature us in our faith, and God’s glory for others
will see it in our lives and praise the Lord.
The third
reason Dr. Wiersbe sights is testing
works for us, not against us. Romans 8:28 teaches us that God causes all
things to work together for our good for those who love Him and are called
according to His purpose. Trials work
for the believer not against the believer.
Trials help to bring about approval of our faith, just as Peter says, “
that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is
perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and
glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: From the
truth of this passage I need to count it all joy when trails come into my life,
realizing that they will bring about maturity in my life which is what God’s
purposes are for the trials. This is
truly more difficult that it sounds.
The Word of God was certainly a challenge to my life as I
read it this morning.
My
Steps of Faith Today: To count it all joy when trials come into my life today.
No comments:
Post a Comment