One of the greatest responses to a trial

I think that everyone who reads this will recall a trial in their life from some situation or another. Trials are a part of life. Some are brought on by our own actions, some are brought on by what is around us. For those in Christ they are brought in by God to test us. Not so much what the other two factors are doing but something out of the blue that we did not warrant or expect, sometimes we cannot make sense of it. The bible has lots of commands and focuses on those trials, we are to count them as joyful and like they are a friend. I really don’t know anyone who has done these things including myself. At least while I have been in the middle of them. One thing I can say is that they do change you and that is what they are there for. They often strip away things we don’t need and what God does not want. Sometimes it is an effort to get our attention. They can expose hidden sins that we try to hide or do not see. Then there are those that are so deep that the only refuge we will ever have is to keep our eyes fixed on Him while we are going through them. We have to in order to see why we are going through so much pain and loss.

Godly improvements are the goal, but there is another goal that God has in the end that often we do not think of, at least until a trial ends or we realize why we are in one. That thing is testimony. The testimony that God will deliver us or has delivered us. The remembering that you followed what the bible told you to do and you did it and benefited from it. The telling of how it wasn’t you or somebody else or something here on earth that helped you. It was God that helped you. Even in those trials that remain part of your life going forward.

Recently our Jewish friends celebrated Purim which is a testimony in itself of the Jewish people being delivered by the Lord through Ester. The spring Holy Days also symbolize the Exodus from Egypt and the coming out of sin. Both in their own way are testimonies of deliverance from trials by God.

In the New Testament, Paul had a difficult trial in his life. No one knows exactly what it was. The satire news Babylon Bee claimed jokingly it was an annoying a leaf blower, but we knew it was not taken away and he lived with the rest of his life.

In 2 Corinthians 12:7, Paul says:

“Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.”

His testimony was that he knew it produced good in him, even though he asked God to take it away three times. It kept him humble as as an outcome of it being in his life.

As we go forward into the Spring Holy Season it is good to remember those deliverances we have had and have testimonies of our own to show others that we were at times delivered from our trials, or if we still have them, that we will be delivered from them at some point.

Psalms 25:1-3 says To you O LORD I lift up my soul in you I trust, O my God. Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse.

Your Brother in Christ,

Steve Koenig

Lakeshore Fellowship