What kind of tri­als and ad­ver­si­ties have you ex­pe­rien­ced in yo­ur life? Have there been things that have tes­ted yo­ur faith in life and in the fu­tu­re? Have you had such he­a­vy tri­als that they have see­med to crush you and make yo­ur whole life and fu­tu­re im­pos­sib­le?

Pe­op­le in the Bib­le ti­mes al­so had tri­als

We ex­pe­rien­ce many kinds of tri­als and mis­for­tu­nes. They are part of our lot as hu­man beings. Each per­son pro­bab­ly has his or her own way of ma­na­ging such si­tu­a­ti­ons. Ad­ver­si­ties tax our men­tal re­sour­ces. They dist­ress us. It may be dif­fi­cult to see that things will ul­ti­ma­te­ly chan­ge to the bet­ter. All ad­ver­si­ties are like he­a­vy blows on the very foun­da­ti­on of our life. When Da­vid was told of the de­ath of his son, his grief was overw­hel­ming. “And the king was deep­ly mo­ved and went up to the cham­ber over the gate and wept. And as he went, he said, 'O my son Ab­sa­lom, my son, my son Ab­sa­lom! Would I had died ins­te­ad of you, O Ab­sa­lom, my son, my son!’” (2 Sam. 18:33.)

What is God’s pur­po­se?

Mo­ses, as the le­a­der of his pe­op­le, ex­pe­rien­ced many tri­als and ad­ver­si­ties that dist­res­sed him. He pra­yed to God, and God he­ard the pra­yer of this an­guis­hed man. God as­ked this surp­ri­sing qu­es­ti­on, ”Mo­ses, why do you cry to me?” (Ex. 14:15.) Ab­ra­ham was told by God to sac­ri­fi­ce his own son. Me­a­su­red by the stan­dards of hu­man life, could we say that this was the har­dest si­tu­a­ti­on any­bo­dy can ever face?

Ac­cor­ding to the Bib­le, God al­lows pe­op­le to suf­fer tri­als. Pe­ter inst­ructs us in his let­ter that tri­als are ul­ti­ma­te­ly a bles­sing to our faith. ”… So that the tes­ted ge­nui­ne­ness of yo­ur faith – more pre­ci­ous than gold that pe­ris­hes though it is tes­ted by fire – may be found to re­sult in prai­se and glory and ho­nor at the re­ve­la­ti­on of Je­sus Christ.” (1 Pet. 1:7.)

The pur­po­se of some tri­als is to wear and burn away from us things that are fo­reign and harm­ful to our faith. Have you been ab­le to be­lie­ve this when strug­g­ling with tri­als? It is so­me­ti­mes qui­te im­pos­sib­le for us to un­ders­tand that tri­als are ac­tu­al­ly a ma­ni­fes­ta­ti­on of the good in­ten­ti­ons of our He­a­ven­ly Fat­her. We feel tor­men­ted and keep as­king ”why”, and we sel­dom get res­pon­ses to these qu­es­ti­ons.

Lord, inc­re­a­se our faith

Our faith can be tes­ted by many dif­fe­rent things. Most of the time we simp­ly need to trust and be­lie­ve that the He­a­ven­ly Fat­her me­ans well and ta­kes care of His child­ren even when they are af­f­lic­ted by temp­ta­ti­ons and tri­als. Like the dis­cip­les, we can on­ly say, “Lord, inc­re­a­se our faith!”

The Pro­verbs exp­ress this brief­ly and cle­ar­ly: ”The cru­cib­le is for sil­ver, and the fur­na­ce is for gold, and the Lord tests he­arts” (Prov. 17:3).

Ja­mes even inst­ructs us to con­si­der tri­als a cau­se for joy (Jam. 1:2). Paul al­so un­ders­tood that troub­les and tri­als may make us see the goal of our faith more cle­ar­ly (Rom. 5:3–5).

When we ex­pe­rien­ce tri­als, we can ap­p­ro­ach our He­a­ven­ly Fat­her in pra­yer. Be­lie­vers can al­so ag­ree to re­mem­ber each ot­her in pra­yer.

Any­bo­dy who feels we­a­ry in tri­als and temp­ta­ti­ons is best con­so­led by the know­led­ge that Je­sus Christ, our Sa­vi­our, can help all those who strug­g­le. His holy gos­pel com­forts us and gi­ves us strength. Be of good cheer! One day our en­de­a­vor in faith will end and we will ex­pe­rien­ce the joy, bright­ness and glory of the ap­pe­a­ran­ce of Je­sus Christ.

Mik­ko Käl­kä­jä

Trans­la­ti­on: S-L.L.

Pub­lis­hed in Päi­vä­mies on 25 Nov. 2015