How to View Trials in Our Lives According to Scripture

​How to View Trials in Our Lives According to Scripture

   In this week’s biblical worldview post, we are tackling the topic of trials. Bad things happen to everyone. No one’s life is perfect. Since the fall of man, tragedies are, unfortunately, part of our everyday lives. But what is the purpose of trials and how
should we react to them?

Like everything else in life, God is in control. (“The heart of man plans his way,
but the Lord establishes his steps” Proverbs 16:9, ESV). The sooner we recognize that,
the better off we will be. We have to recognize, though, that God is in control of the
good and bad things that happen in our lives, but there is a lot of peace knowing that
nothing happens outside of God’s sovereign control. We don’t always know God’s
specific purpose for allowing certain situations to take place in our lives; we may never
know, but we can rest assured that God has a good plan (Roms. 8:28) and a purpose
for it all. God tells us in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither
are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” We
do not always have the capacity to understand what God is working out in our lives, but
we can trust that He knows what He is doing.
In 2 Corinthians 11:24-28, the apostle Paul talks about the trials that he endured
for being a disciple of Christ: “Five times I received...forty lashes less one. Three times I
was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a
day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from my own people, danger
from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from
false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst,
often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily
pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.”

In chapter 12, Paul talks about his “thorn in the flesh” that some scholars believe
to have been a problem with his eyesight. Nevertheless, Paul tells us what God told him
when he pleaded with God to remove the issue: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my
power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cors. 12:9). There is a lesson for us in God’s
response to Paul. God’s power is perfect in our weakness. When we are weak and feel
like we can’t go on because of the physical and mental anguish of our lives, God’s
power is perfect. He is still there. He is still with us. He still supplies. Our trials
strengthen our faith because they cause us to turn to Him. The apostle Paul said: “For
the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions,
and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cors. 12:10). He was strong
when he was weak because in his weakness, he learned to rely fully on God, and God
was supplying His strength.
​
I would urge you, dear brother or sister, if you are going through a difficult
season, as I am, rely on God to be your strength. I have never grown so close to God
as when I am going through trials and difficulties. He has never failed to be my strength.

---