*Edited July 9, 2015*
Why Do We Suffer? (Continued)
In 1 Peter 1:7, the apostle writes that trials must happen in order "that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perisheth though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." Peter paints a brilliant metaphor here. Our faith is so precious to God that He wants it to be pure. We purify gold through fire. Through the process of making gold pure, we remove alloy and other impurities by putting gold in a crucible and applying intense heat to it until all the impurities are destroyed and all that remains is the gold. Peter's argument here is that if we do this with gold, then how much more this needs to happen with our faith! Throughout our entire lives, God puts us in different trying crucibles, applying intense heat to the trial each time in order to eliminate all of our impurities until all that remains is our faith — purified and perfect. Faith is this remarkable gift from God that takes a person who's dead in sin and makes him alive in Christ and therefore a new creation — a new man or woman in Christ (hence 2 Corinthians 5:17). I'm not saying that every trial we face occurs at the command of God. For example, with an alcoholic, God does not place the alcohol in his or her hand and neither does He plant thoughts of temptation into their mind that forces them to make unwise decisions, for God is not a tempter (James 1:13). Such an example is something that we bring upon ourselves. The point I'm trying to make is that God may at times permit trials to happen to us because for the Christian, everything we do and everything that happens to us has the future appearing of Jesus Christ as its ultimate objective. We are in these "manifold trials" because of the character of our faith.
Faith is a forever growing process. As I described earlier, He can test us by trials or permit them to happen at no cause of His own as if putting our faith through fire in order that the things that don't belong to the essence of faith may be destroyed. At times we may think that our faith is perfect and that we can resist anything, but then a trial will suddenly present itself and we find that we fail. Why is this? Well, that's just an indication that the trust element in our faith still needs development; God develops our trust in Him by trying us in this way or permitting it to happen. The more we experience these trials and God pulls us through, the more we learn to trust Him in everything. Our natural inclination is to trust Him when He's smiling down upon us and is blessing us, but the very moment something bad happens for a day, a week, a month, or for however long, we begin to wonder whether God is still with us and loves us (or if He actually exists) and if we had a false understanding of what the Christian life is supposed to be like. But I say, examine Abraham. Abraham "hoped against hope" (Romans 4:18). God told him to sacrifice his only son Isaac. (Abraham had another son named Ishmael, but Isaac was the one whom Abraham's bloodline would continue through. Also, his wife Sarah was barren and gave birth to Isaac as an elderly woman, so he was literally a miracle child.) Of course, Abraham was deeply conflicted with what God was asking him to do because He was asking him to do the unthinkable: to kill his own son. In spite of this, he still trusted God and was going to do just that. Imagine what must've been going through his head. God promised Abraham that he would become a nation and have as many children as there are stars in the sky, and now here God was telling him to sacrifice his only son — the one He promised to continue his bloodline. He might have thought God was contradicting Himself, but he had faith that God would provide despite the seemingly contradicting command. However, we see that the Angel of the LORD appears, tells him to stop just as he's about to sacrifice Isaac, and Abraham sees a ram stuck in a bush, which he uses that as the sacrifice instead. In the spectrum of the Old Testament into the New Testament, God was portraying a very important Christological image. God would not allow Abraham to sacrifice his only son for the nation because not only would that sacrifice not be enough, but also because God was already going to do that for us with His only begotten Son Jesus Christ on the cross. My point is that Abraham continued to trust God against all odds even when everything around him and his thoughts told him otherwise; this is the kind of trust and faith we ought to develop. We don't start off like this, but as we experience more and more great things and trials with God we realise that "behind a frowning providence He hides a Father's face" (William Cowper's poem, God Moves In A Mysterious Way).
This is exactly the same with patience and endurance — the capacity to keep on in the faith in spite of discouragement. That is one of the greatest tests a Christian can ever experience. As we become newly adopted children of God in the Christian life, we're exactly like little kids — we want everything at once and if we don't get it, we become impatient and whine about it. Then God puts us in timeout due to our temper tantrum. This is because we are lacking patience and endurance, which is ultimately self-discipline. We need to tell ourselves, "God knows what's best for me. I will trust God."
Enduring trials helps to certify our faith. Let's read the parable of the sower: "A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear" (Matthew 13:3-9).
I would explain this parable, but Jesus explains it just fine in verses 18-23: "Hear then the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the Word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the Word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the Word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the Word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the Word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty" (bold print added).
The print in bold is exactly what I'm talking about. There is nothing that so certifies the genuineness of a person's faith than his or her patience and endurance of it through the strength of Christ, who enables one to maintain the faith in spite of every discouragement coming from all directions. Peter is saying that these things happen to us so that the genuineness of our faith may be perfectly evident before all of man. Christians who fall away are certainly no recommendation and those who start off in the faith strong but don't continue in it disgrace the faith.
Only For A Season
Although these trials happen to us, they are only "for a season." Please don't get the impression that what I'm teaching is that constant trials are the perpetual condition of the average Christian; that's not what I'm saying at all. These trials come and go as God sees fit. First Corinthians 10:13 says, "There hath no temptation take you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." God is our loving Father, and He knows exactly how much each of us are able to handle. If He brought us into it, He can bring us out of it. If God doesn't bring us into a trying situation but was our own doing, He can still bring us through it. Do you feel that you're unable to approach prayer like you were once able to? Have you lost your faith? Or do you feel that it's been dwindling? Do not be troubled. You are in the hand of your Father who loves you. A glorious period may be coming for you; He may have some unusual blessing for you; He may have some great work for you to do. So do not be troubled and just keep pressing on; it is only "for a season."
Before I continue, I must again briefly mention that every single suffering we experience is not a result of God's action. We cause our own suffering most of the time. A lot of the time we deliberately choose to make unwise decisions that lead to suffering. The good news is that when something like this happens, we have great words of comfort from Christ Himself: "Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). Whenever you are weary or burdened with so much stress and suffering, lay yourself down at the foot of the cross and surrender your entire situation to Christ, taking up His yoke and learning from Him, and He shall give you rest.
Wherein Ye Greatly Rejoice
As you experience trials, remind yourself of the things "wherein ye greatly rejoice." The dilemma is that when these trials come, all we think about are these trials and how miserable we are. Go back to the third verse of this first chapter in Peter's first letter. When all you can see are your trials and misery, read this: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance and incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith and unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Peter 1:3-5). Say to yourself, "I acknowledge that these things are happening to me and seem to be coming from all directions, but I will not give up. Rather, God is good and I know Christ died for me, I know I belong to God, and I know my inheritance is in Heaven. I can't see it now but I know it's there. I know God is preserving it just for me and nobody can ever take that out of His mighty hands, not even the Devil." Then go on to the ultimate statement in verse seven and say to yourself, "It's coming, and I don't know when, but the day of the Lord is coming, and I will be there. Therefore, I know that everything that happens to me in this earthly life has the revelation of Jesus Christ as its ultimate objective." That is what we have to rejoice in. Remember the promise in Christ and rejoice in that promise.
Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 4:1-4, "This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me." In his book, The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning writes: "But we cannot apply human logic and justice to the living God. Yahweh does not conform to his model. If Israel is unfaithful, God remains faithful against all logic and all limits of justice because He is" (p. 101). Thank God that He doesn't judge us as we would judge each other. If any human being were to look at my life and my past and current sins, through human logic they would condemn and sentence me to life imprisonment in Hell (indeed, we all deserve this sentence). But God the Father looks upon me with bountiful mercy and grace as He sees me covered in the blood of Christ, as He also sees you. People always say, "God's not fair!" And they're right. Thank God that He's not fair because we justly deserve condemnation and punishment in Hell! If He were fair, He would've just let us rot on this earth with the inevitability of spending eternity in Hell, but against all logic and reasoning and all fairness, He sent His only begotten Son to die for our sins! Praise the Lord! It's not logical to us because we don't deserve such a gift, but in spite of all logic God did it anyway! That is the grace of Jesus Christ, the greatest gift of all.
Looking Forward
Likewise, Peter says that the revelation of Jesus Christ is a great thing we have to look forward to. On that glorious day, our faith will be made evident. Our faith that we may think is so little will stand out as something enormous. At this point it will have stood against all those tests and it is going to minister to the "praise and honour and glory" of Jesus Christ, and Jesus will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of the Lord" (Matthew 25:23). Second Corinthians 5:10 says, "For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." Along with what we did wrong, there will be a judgement of rewards, and we the faithful shall be rewarded according to our faith and the way it has stood against trials.
You may be in "heaviness" right now through one or several trials and temptations and you may be weeping as you endure them. But again, it is only "for a season" and after you have suffered through them, they will seem insignificant. We are promised that the day will come when "the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne... shall lead us unto living foundations of water" and that God Himself "shall wipe away the tears from our eyes" (Revelation 7:17). Draw upon the strength of God and declare to Him: "Send what You will. My only concern is that I may please You in Your sight and accomplish Your will."
References
Manning, Brennan. The Ragamuffin Gospel. Sisters, Or.: Multnomah Publishers, 2000.
Why Do We Suffer? (Continued)
In 1 Peter 1:7, the apostle writes that trials must happen in order "that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perisheth though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." Peter paints a brilliant metaphor here. Our faith is so precious to God that He wants it to be pure. We purify gold through fire. Through the process of making gold pure, we remove alloy and other impurities by putting gold in a crucible and applying intense heat to it until all the impurities are destroyed and all that remains is the gold. Peter's argument here is that if we do this with gold, then how much more this needs to happen with our faith! Throughout our entire lives, God puts us in different trying crucibles, applying intense heat to the trial each time in order to eliminate all of our impurities until all that remains is our faith — purified and perfect. Faith is this remarkable gift from God that takes a person who's dead in sin and makes him alive in Christ and therefore a new creation — a new man or woman in Christ (hence 2 Corinthians 5:17). I'm not saying that every trial we face occurs at the command of God. For example, with an alcoholic, God does not place the alcohol in his or her hand and neither does He plant thoughts of temptation into their mind that forces them to make unwise decisions, for God is not a tempter (James 1:13). Such an example is something that we bring upon ourselves. The point I'm trying to make is that God may at times permit trials to happen to us because for the Christian, everything we do and everything that happens to us has the future appearing of Jesus Christ as its ultimate objective. We are in these "manifold trials" because of the character of our faith.
Faith is a forever growing process. As I described earlier, He can test us by trials or permit them to happen at no cause of His own as if putting our faith through fire in order that the things that don't belong to the essence of faith may be destroyed. At times we may think that our faith is perfect and that we can resist anything, but then a trial will suddenly present itself and we find that we fail. Why is this? Well, that's just an indication that the trust element in our faith still needs development; God develops our trust in Him by trying us in this way or permitting it to happen. The more we experience these trials and God pulls us through, the more we learn to trust Him in everything. Our natural inclination is to trust Him when He's smiling down upon us and is blessing us, but the very moment something bad happens for a day, a week, a month, or for however long, we begin to wonder whether God is still with us and loves us (or if He actually exists) and if we had a false understanding of what the Christian life is supposed to be like. But I say, examine Abraham. Abraham "hoped against hope" (Romans 4:18). God told him to sacrifice his only son Isaac. (Abraham had another son named Ishmael, but Isaac was the one whom Abraham's bloodline would continue through. Also, his wife Sarah was barren and gave birth to Isaac as an elderly woman, so he was literally a miracle child.) Of course, Abraham was deeply conflicted with what God was asking him to do because He was asking him to do the unthinkable: to kill his own son. In spite of this, he still trusted God and was going to do just that. Imagine what must've been going through his head. God promised Abraham that he would become a nation and have as many children as there are stars in the sky, and now here God was telling him to sacrifice his only son — the one He promised to continue his bloodline. He might have thought God was contradicting Himself, but he had faith that God would provide despite the seemingly contradicting command. However, we see that the Angel of the LORD appears, tells him to stop just as he's about to sacrifice Isaac, and Abraham sees a ram stuck in a bush, which he uses that as the sacrifice instead. In the spectrum of the Old Testament into the New Testament, God was portraying a very important Christological image. God would not allow Abraham to sacrifice his only son for the nation because not only would that sacrifice not be enough, but also because God was already going to do that for us with His only begotten Son Jesus Christ on the cross. My point is that Abraham continued to trust God against all odds even when everything around him and his thoughts told him otherwise; this is the kind of trust and faith we ought to develop. We don't start off like this, but as we experience more and more great things and trials with God we realise that "behind a frowning providence He hides a Father's face" (William Cowper's poem, God Moves In A Mysterious Way).
This is exactly the same with patience and endurance — the capacity to keep on in the faith in spite of discouragement. That is one of the greatest tests a Christian can ever experience. As we become newly adopted children of God in the Christian life, we're exactly like little kids — we want everything at once and if we don't get it, we become impatient and whine about it. Then God puts us in timeout due to our temper tantrum. This is because we are lacking patience and endurance, which is ultimately self-discipline. We need to tell ourselves, "God knows what's best for me. I will trust God."
Enduring trials helps to certify our faith. Let's read the parable of the sower: "A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear" (Matthew 13:3-9).
I would explain this parable, but Jesus explains it just fine in verses 18-23: "Hear then the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the Word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the Word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the Word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the Word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the Word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty" (bold print added).
The print in bold is exactly what I'm talking about. There is nothing that so certifies the genuineness of a person's faith than his or her patience and endurance of it through the strength of Christ, who enables one to maintain the faith in spite of every discouragement coming from all directions. Peter is saying that these things happen to us so that the genuineness of our faith may be perfectly evident before all of man. Christians who fall away are certainly no recommendation and those who start off in the faith strong but don't continue in it disgrace the faith.
Only For A Season
Although these trials happen to us, they are only "for a season." Please don't get the impression that what I'm teaching is that constant trials are the perpetual condition of the average Christian; that's not what I'm saying at all. These trials come and go as God sees fit. First Corinthians 10:13 says, "There hath no temptation take you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." God is our loving Father, and He knows exactly how much each of us are able to handle. If He brought us into it, He can bring us out of it. If God doesn't bring us into a trying situation but was our own doing, He can still bring us through it. Do you feel that you're unable to approach prayer like you were once able to? Have you lost your faith? Or do you feel that it's been dwindling? Do not be troubled. You are in the hand of your Father who loves you. A glorious period may be coming for you; He may have some unusual blessing for you; He may have some great work for you to do. So do not be troubled and just keep pressing on; it is only "for a season."
Before I continue, I must again briefly mention that every single suffering we experience is not a result of God's action. We cause our own suffering most of the time. A lot of the time we deliberately choose to make unwise decisions that lead to suffering. The good news is that when something like this happens, we have great words of comfort from Christ Himself: "Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). Whenever you are weary or burdened with so much stress and suffering, lay yourself down at the foot of the cross and surrender your entire situation to Christ, taking up His yoke and learning from Him, and He shall give you rest.
Wherein Ye Greatly Rejoice
As you experience trials, remind yourself of the things "wherein ye greatly rejoice." The dilemma is that when these trials come, all we think about are these trials and how miserable we are. Go back to the third verse of this first chapter in Peter's first letter. When all you can see are your trials and misery, read this: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance and incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith and unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (1 Peter 1:3-5). Say to yourself, "I acknowledge that these things are happening to me and seem to be coming from all directions, but I will not give up. Rather, God is good and I know Christ died for me, I know I belong to God, and I know my inheritance is in Heaven. I can't see it now but I know it's there. I know God is preserving it just for me and nobody can ever take that out of His mighty hands, not even the Devil." Then go on to the ultimate statement in verse seven and say to yourself, "It's coming, and I don't know when, but the day of the Lord is coming, and I will be there. Therefore, I know that everything that happens to me in this earthly life has the revelation of Jesus Christ as its ultimate objective." That is what we have to rejoice in. Remember the promise in Christ and rejoice in that promise.
Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 4:1-4, "This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me." In his book, The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning writes: "But we cannot apply human logic and justice to the living God. Yahweh does not conform to his model. If Israel is unfaithful, God remains faithful against all logic and all limits of justice because He is" (p. 101). Thank God that He doesn't judge us as we would judge each other. If any human being were to look at my life and my past and current sins, through human logic they would condemn and sentence me to life imprisonment in Hell (indeed, we all deserve this sentence). But God the Father looks upon me with bountiful mercy and grace as He sees me covered in the blood of Christ, as He also sees you. People always say, "God's not fair!" And they're right. Thank God that He's not fair because we justly deserve condemnation and punishment in Hell! If He were fair, He would've just let us rot on this earth with the inevitability of spending eternity in Hell, but against all logic and reasoning and all fairness, He sent His only begotten Son to die for our sins! Praise the Lord! It's not logical to us because we don't deserve such a gift, but in spite of all logic God did it anyway! That is the grace of Jesus Christ, the greatest gift of all.
Looking Forward
Likewise, Peter says that the revelation of Jesus Christ is a great thing we have to look forward to. On that glorious day, our faith will be made evident. Our faith that we may think is so little will stand out as something enormous. At this point it will have stood against all those tests and it is going to minister to the "praise and honour and glory" of Jesus Christ, and Jesus will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of the Lord" (Matthew 25:23). Second Corinthians 5:10 says, "For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." Along with what we did wrong, there will be a judgement of rewards, and we the faithful shall be rewarded according to our faith and the way it has stood against trials.
You may be in "heaviness" right now through one or several trials and temptations and you may be weeping as you endure them. But again, it is only "for a season" and after you have suffered through them, they will seem insignificant. We are promised that the day will come when "the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne... shall lead us unto living foundations of water" and that God Himself "shall wipe away the tears from our eyes" (Revelation 7:17). Draw upon the strength of God and declare to Him: "Send what You will. My only concern is that I may please You in Your sight and accomplish Your will."
References
Manning, Brennan. The Ragamuffin Gospel. Sisters, Or.: Multnomah Publishers, 2000.
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