Finding purpose in trials....

Trials and Tribulations – everyone has them. They come in many forms and at many times in our lives. Its guaranteed that at some point in our lives we will have a trial or a valley to go through. The general answer as to why we must go through difficult things and hard times is because we live in a cursed world that has been broken by sin. It started with Adam and Eve and sin has continued ever since. This curse from Genesis 3 will remain until Jesus comes back, judges and then makes all things new.

As of this writing, you may be in the midst of a trial and if not yourself you know someone who is. You or someone you know is dealing with a health concern, a financial problem, a relationship difficulty, or any number of other problems that arrive without invitation and they stay far too long!

Scripture has much to say about our trials and tribulations and, briefly, I would like to share with you 7 of those passages that help us to make sense of and find purpose in our various trials.

1) Trials are not always the result of sin. (John 9:1-12)

-It was assumed here by the disciples and in Jewish culture as a whole that trials were directly related to someone's sin. The greater the suffering, the greater the sin must have been. In this story of the man born blind, Jesus makes it clear that sin had nothing to do with it.

2) Trials show us that life is uncertain. (Luke 13:1-5)

-There were two tragedies discussed here: Pilate had hunted down and killed some Galilean rebels who were offering sacrifices in the temple. The bloodshed was horrendous and the act only fueled the hatred the Jews had for the Romans. The other tragedy was a tower had fallen on some unnamed bystanders and killed them - 18 total. In both tragedies, the people assumed they happened because those who died were involved some kind of terrible sin. Jesus quickly demonstrated that that wasn't the case and then He promptly turned His answer into a call for repentance because death without Him as Lord and Savior would result in a tragedy just like those two events for eternity in Hell.

3) Trials keep us humble. (2 Cor. 12:1-10)

-We don't know what Paul's 'thorn in the flesh' actually was. Regardless, it was something that troubled him so greatly that he prayed for God to take it away on three different occasions. His prayer was not answered in the way that he liked and the thorn continued. Paul realized the great blessings he had received in his life of receiving special revelations from God, such as seeing heaven and being given content for the New Testament epistles, therefore he could very easily become arrogant and conceited. These trials, in this instance in his life, were given to keep him humble and out of an arrogant mindset.

4) Trials, unlike temptations, will often be more than we can handle. (1 Cor. 10:13)

-Simply put, this passage gets misapplied all the time. It has nothing to do with trials but with temptation. God will never allow such a temptation in our lives that we can't overcome through His power in Christ. However, God will and often does allow trials to come our way that absolutely bulldoze us - as in the case of Job. Why? So that we can learn to rely totally on Him and not ourselves.

5) God provides strength for contentment in trials. (Philip. 4:13)

-This verse shows up in sports, classrooms and a slew of other things all the time in a commonly misapplied and misquoted fashion. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me...." apparently including becoming homecoming queen, winning a baseball game, getting a promotion, winning the lottery, and buying that new car. Wow! Not wow. This passage has nothing to do with having a certain amount of faith to get whatever it is we want from God. God isn't a magic genie - leave that to Aladdin and the goofy blue guy in the lamp. Paul makes clear that he had experienced it all in life, from both sides - he had been rich and poor, mighty and downtrodden, strong and weak, at peace and afflicted, respected and disgraced. Yet, in each of those situations, he learned how to be content in all circumstances, no matter what. How? He was able to "through Christ who strengthened" him. Read the passage again starting at verse 1 and you'll see what I mean. Context. Context. Context.

6) Trials are not random or meaningless. (Rom. 8:28)

-If you are a born again child of God, everything works out for your good, and namely your eternal good. The whole purpose in this Christian life is to bring glory to God and the only way we can truly do that is through the process of sanctification - to be made more like Jesus. Therefore, everything that takes place in our lives, even the trials, are geared towards making us like our Savior. This is a great comfort because this means that even our worst trials aren't random or meaningless. There is purpose in everything through the work of Christ. Take comfort in this!

7) Trials equip us to help others. (2 Cor. 1:1-7)

-This one's easy to see but not often discussed or remembered. Commit this to memory if you get nothing else out of this post: Your trial equips you to help someone in the future. This truth piggy-backs off of point 6. No trial is wasted, no matter how big or small, because in those times when you finally make it out, you are officially equipped with experience and wisdom to help the next person who comes along struggling in that valley you just got out of. What a blessing to be a help to someone else who's asking the same questions and dealing with the same fears and emotions you once were!

Don't waste your trial(s) Christian - you never know who you can help along the way.

ealing with the same fears and emotions you once were! Don't waste your trial(s) Christian - you never know who you can help along the way.