A Purpose For Trials

[Multifavs]

When you're in a dark place you may feel all alone, even abandoned by God. But remember, He is always there and will never abandon you. You may wonder why you're going through such a trial. Well, there is a purpose...and someday it will surely be revealed to you.

Trials are a result of when sin entered the world, but they are not caused by any sin you've committed. They may be difficult to deal with. They may make us feel weak and helpless. But God uses them for a greater good that we can not always understand. Trials purify us and prepare us for the Kingdom. They open our eyes to ways we can improve and they change our hearts for the better. After a trial is over, you may discover you've become stronger than before.

So whenever you're going through a trial, remain hopeful and prayerful. God is using this difficulty for a purpose that, someday, you will look back on and see clearly. And always remember that, no matter what you're going through, it is only temporary. Jesus is with you and loves you through it all.

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

James 1:2-4 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

Matthew 5:12
Rejoice and celebrate, because great is your reward in heaven; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.

Romans 5:3
Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;

James 1:12
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.

 

[dzheremi]

Iron is forged in fire, my friends. To acquire a passionless mind and bring the body under the soul's control requires a constant struggle against the fallen impulses of man. The hands which hold the prayer book or the scriptures are thus occupied, just as the body in prostration is remembering its vulnerability and brokeness as we by our mouths and with our souls uplifted to God cry out for help in our struggles. I find the chanting of the psalms and the midnight praises to be most helpful in this, so if you wouldn't mind I would like to share a most sincere prayer from this tradition (Egyptian Orthodox Christianity, where the heroic monastic combat began with St. Anthony the Great, the father of the monks), where we cry out to our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ. I believe its words may resonate with all people who struggle, so that we may all have strength from God for the fight. Lord have mercy.

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

Romans 8:8-10 Amplified Bible (AMP)
8 and those who are in the flesh [living a life that caters to sinful appetites and impulses] cannot please God.


9 However, you are not [living] in the flesh [controlled by the sinful nature] but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God lives in you [directing and guiding you]. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him [and is not a child of God]. 10 If Christ lives in you, though your [natural] body is dead because of sin, your spirit is alive because of righteousness [which He provides].


Amplified Bible (AMP)

Yahweh uses suffering to
wean us away from living our own way, in the flesh,

to living His Way, in the spirit; dominated/ with self-control by the spirit over the flesh and the soul.

 

[St_Worm2]

Trials are a result of sin, but they are not caused by any sin you've committed.

Hi Multifavs, would you mind elaborating a bit? Why do you believe that trials are always the result of sin? And, assuming that you are correct about that, why are the trials that we face always the result of someone else's sin and not our own?

Thanks!

--David

 

[St_Worm2]

Sorry if my post was not descriptive enough; I was actually not sure how to word that part.

No worries

What I meant in that part was that trials (suffering) are caused by sin in general, as in there were no trials until Adam and Eve sinned in Genesis.

Well, there was the trial that involved the snake/Satan and the Tree of Knowledge which actually happened just prior to the occurrence of their first sin, yes?

Trials are not always the result of sin, but the fact that they happen is caused by sin in general. They can be caused by someone else's sin or our own sin but are not always so.

So things like tidal waves, earthquakes, etc., or an illness, like getting Lyme Disease on a camping trip from a tick bite, or the loss of a job due to an employer selling his/her business to someone else, how are these kinds of things, which can result in difficult trials (even lifelong trials in some cases), the direct result of someone's sin?

Thanks for your help!

--David