Surprise by Trials?

By Steve Cornell
A popular gospel tract offers the reader "God's love and wonderful plan for your life." Those who come to God assuming to receive this love and wonderful plan, risk serious misunderstanding of God's methods and purposes with His Children.
This is especially true for those who think God's love and plan will keep them or immediately deliver them from the trials of life. They soon learn that God's plan is not what they expected. They discover that although God frequently helps and rescues His children in times of adversity, He does not guarantee protection from hardships. In fact, it is not unusual for God to allow His children to experience increased difficulty to teach them to depend on Him.
This comes as a big surprise to those expecting the wonderful plan. The assumption that being loved by God will solve their problems and finally bring undisturbed tranquility proves to be misleading and sadly disappointing. It also leaves a trail of disillusioned converts who feel that God has let them down.
Describing how new believers experience this, J. I. Packer wrote, "They advance into their new life joyfully certain that they have left all the old headaches and heartaches behind them. And then they find that it is not like that at all. Long standing problems of temperament, of personal relationships, of felt wants, of nagging temptations are still there - sometimes, indeed, intensified. God does not make their circumstances notably easier; rather the reverse. Dissatisfaction recurs over wife, or husband, or parents, or in-laws, or children, or colleagues or neighbors. Temptations and bad habits which their conversion experience seemed to have banished for good reappear. As the first great waves of joy rolled over them during the opening weeks of their Christian experience, they had really felt that all problems had solved themselves, but now they see that it was not so…Things which got them down before they were Christians are threatening to get them down again."
These new believers should turn to scripture for help. In it they will discover that Jesus explicitly told his disciples, "In this world you will have trouble …" and "each day has enough trouble of its own" (John 16:33; Matthew 6:33). Further, if they studied the lives of biblical characters, they would find that all of them battled the hardships of life in a fallen world. They would not find one story of trouble free existence in the Bible.
But why does God allow and ordain trials? What purpose do they serve? Packer continues,"When we walk along a clear road feeling fine, and someone takes our arm to help us, as likely as not we shall impatiently shake him off; but when we are caught in rough country in the dark, with a storm getting up and our strength spent, and someone takes our arms to help us, we shall thankfully lean on him. And God wants us to feel that our way through life is rough and perplexing, so that we may learn thankfully to lean on him. Therefore he takes steps to drive us out of self-confidence to trust in himself."
And God accomplishes his purpose, "Not by shielding us from assault by the world, the flesh and the devil, nor by protecting us from burdensome and frustrating circumstances, nor yet by shielding us from troubles created by our own temperament and psychology; but rather by exposing us to all these things, so as to overwhelm us with a sense of our own inadequacy, and to drive us to cling to him more closely. This is the ultimate reason, from our standpoint, why God fills our lives with troubles and perplexities of one sort and another - it is to ensure that we shall learn to hold him fast"  (Packer, "Knowing God").
In his hymn "These Inward Trials," John Newton (author of the hymn "Amazing Grace") described his surprise at God's plan.
"I asked the Lord, that I might grow In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know, And seek more earnestly His face.
I hoped that in some favored hour At once He'd answer my request,
And by His love's constraining power Subdue my sins, and give me rest.
Instead of this, He made me feel The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry powers of hell Assault my soul in every part.
Yea more, with His own hand He seemed Intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed, Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.
'Lord, why is this?' I trembling cried, 'Wilt thou pursue Thy worm to death?'
''Tis in this way,' the Lord replied, 'I answer prayer for grace and faith.
These inward trials I employ From self and pride to set thee free;
And break thy schemes of earthly joy, That thou may'st seek thy all in me.'" 
"God wants us to feel that our way through life is rough and perplexing, so that we may learn thankfully to lean on him."  J.I. Packer
For a detailed biblical study on trials contact me at s.cornell@millersvillebiblechurch.org
Steve Cornell
 
 

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