"For a little while you have had to
suffer great and all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith may be
proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is
revealed." 1 Peter 1:6-7
This week we are talking about faith,
making our faith stronger, and four ways God fortifies our faith.
1. By Providing for our Problems
Nothing ever happens by accident in the life of a follower of Jesus
Christ. Everything is Father-filtered. Nothing
comes into your life if you’re a child of God, without God’s permission. It
couldn’t happen without God’s approval.
God’s permission brings God’s protection, provision and purpose. Romans 8:28 says
And we know that God causes all things to work together
for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His
purpose.
God may negotiate my present failure
for my future success (or His success). But, the real tests of our faith are
sometimes internal (doubt, depression, despair), not circumstantial.
Sometimes God has to custom-make
a problem to grow our faith.
Jonah had a custom made problem. It just swallowed him up and got his
attention. Sometimes God creates
problems that swallow you up. You say, "There’s nothing else to look at except
the Lord."
Whatever is the reason for the
problems you are experiencing they shouldn’t discourage you, but rather
encourage you because they show that God is not through with you yet and still
wants to use you to fulfill His plan and purpose. It isn’t uncommon for us to go through many
kinds of problems or storms in our lives that test your faith. In fact, much of the book of James was
written to teach us this. “My friends be glad, even if you have a lot of trouble.
You know that you learn to endure by having your faith tested.” 3. James 1:2-3
(CEV)
Testing comes from God to help me
to STAND. Trials come from Satan to cause me to FALL.
If the problem you are experiencing is in order to test your faith, God
is able to give you the victory through it.
The secret is surrender to God’s
hand when we are facing problems in our lives.
It is not a matter of trying to work it out on our own. Instead of fighting against God and the
circumstances, we need to turn our problem over to Him and learn to trust in
His strength and wisdom. When you are
going through a problem you need to change matters of CARE into matters of
PRAYER. In fact, here is a basic rule to
live by. If it is big enough to WORRY about, it’s big enough to PRAY about.
God uses these kinds of things to
test our faith. If life were easy, then
it wouldn’t require any faith. If you could feel God all the time, then you’d
just go by your feelings. Sometimes God
removes the feeling of His presence just so you learn to trust Him in the
difficulties. We may learn something
about how strong we are in the fire, but what God really desires is for us to
learn about Him.
What are you learning from the problems you are experiencing in your
life? One very important lesson that we
can all learn from this storm is: More can be accomplished in one moment in
God’s will than hours of intense labor outside of God’s will.
Scripture to Claim:
"I have refined you though not as
silver. I have tested you in the furnace of affliction."
Isaiah 48:10
Isaiah 48:10
