The purpose of trials

None of us like it when life gets tough. When finances get tight or a relationship sours or a loved one gets a bad prognosis ... we try to pray it away. We can't imagine how going through such trying circumstances can be a sign of God's favor or God's sovereign reign over His creation.

Yet, throughout Scripture, we read that times of trouble are a good thing. In my Bible reading this morning, I was reminded that God often uses undesirable life circumstances to test our faith... - to see if we are truly children of God on our way to Heaven or whether we are on our way to a Christ-less Hell.

After all, you don't want to get it wrong. Imagine the horror of thinking you are on your way to Heaven and only a moment after closing your eyes in death opening them in torment in Hell. Imagine it hitting you like a ton of bricks that this will be your plight for ever and ever and ever. It will never, ever end. Jesus warned that many will experience this very thing! (Matthew 7:21-23).

So, how do you know that you are saved? How do you know that you have a genuine relationship with God and that your eternal destination is Heaven?

Trials are what God uses to give us certainty of our eternal destination!

God sends difficulties into our life to test us. How we respond says a lot about who we really are on the inside.

When your life gets tough, what's you knee-jerk reaction? What do you do for consolation? Is your natural response to find comfort in spending time with Him in prayer and reading His Word? Or do you find some other thing to bring some sort of inner peace?

What is your response to God? Do you find it natural to say "Your will be done, Lord" or do you naturally question Him and His motives? Do you ignore Him or get angry at Him?

Of course, even the most devout of Christians will have struggles. For a time, they may experience some undesirable mindsets and behaviors. However, they will eventually find their comfort in God like a moth is drawn to a light at night.

Yes, trials are our friends. They are God's gift to us to test the genuineness of our faith. They are intended to comfort our hearts (while not necessarily in this life) with the assurance that we are truly children of God. It is certainly possible for us to experience peace and joy in the midst of trials but ultimately, those trials give us comfort in the fact that we are headed to Heaven.

1 Peter 1:6-7 - "So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold - though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world." (New Living Translation)

A pastor's heart

If a pastor takes his job as seriously as God's Word instructs, he realizes that he has a massive weight resting firmly upon His shoulders. Not only is he responsible to pursue personal holiness (1 Peter 1:15-16), he is also responsible for his family's spiritual well-being (1 Timothy 3:4-5) as well as his congregation's (as is noted by Hebrews 13:17 cited below).

To add to this weight, we are told in James 3:1 (in regard to the teaching aspect of pastoring): "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness." In other words, "You'd better be sure that you have studied God's Word, know what it says and accurately convey what it says to God's people as you show them how it works in your own life."

To further add to this weight, every pastor who leads a congregation finds that the folks he leads struggle with temptation and sin just as he does. Often, they (like he) go through times when they are apathetic to the things of God. Often, they (like he) resist being corrected when in a condition of sinfulness. Etc., etc., etc.

Yet, all of this and more being true, a godly pastor's heart craves to see folks become more like Jesus. He wants to see men and women, boys and girls live in such a way that God is free to bless them and use them for His divine purposes. He wants the folks he leads to stand before the Lord on the Day of Judgment and hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant," and know that he played a small part in getting that person fit for Heaven.

And so He speaks God's Word to them. He preaches from God's Word. He instructs from God's Word. He counsels from God's Word. His job is to get people fit for here and Heaven.

As long as He is appealing to the authority found in God's Word, the following instruction is a must for things to go well with a church family...

"Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit." (Hebrews 13:17 - New Living Translation)

Approaching an Unapproachable God

In the Old Testament, God made it clear that because He was holy and all of humanity were sinners, they could not come near Him. If they did so without His beckoning, they would do so at the expense of their own life.

In Exodus 19, God made it clear that when He descended upon Mount Sinai to give the Law, the people weren't even to touch the mountain. If they did, they would die.
In Leviticus 16, God made it clear that anyone who entered the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle/temple would die (unless they were the High Priest and only on the Day of Atonement and only if they came with the blood of a sacrifice).
In 2 Samuel 6, God showed how serious He was about that which was Holy. As the Ark of the Covenant was being improperly transported, it became unstable and a man named Uzzah reach out to touch that which was holy and associated with God. God killed him.

The holiness of God, simply put, demands that we cannot come near God. As sinners, approaching God means that we would do so at the expense of our own life.

Yet, in eternity past, God determined that He would remedy this problem at the expense of the life of His Son. He sent Jesus to be born of a virgin with the ultimate purpose of dying on the cross as the ultimate and final sacrifice for sin.

Therefore, anyone who places their trust in Jesus (and not themselves) to make them right in the eyes of a Holy God are declared forgiven (our sin debt is paid) and righteous (Jesus' perfect righteousness is credited to us). Thus, we can approach a Holy God because Jesus has made us holy (Colossians 3:12).

But, not only can we approach God, we can do so with great confidence. Unlike the High Priest who approached God with a sense of solemnity and great fear, we can approach Him in fellowship with confidence in our right standing with Him because of Jesus.

"Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:16)

Yet, it's one thing to realize that we can approach a Holy God. It's quite another to actually spend time in His presence in Bible reading, prayer and living with a conscience awareness of His presence.

Will you take advantage of this incredible privilege today ... and tomorrow ...?