"The LORD says, 'I will give you back what you lost ["I will repay you for the years..." or make it up to you (HCSB)] to the swarming locusts, the hopping locusts, the stripping locusts, and the cutting locusts. It was I who sent this great destroying army against you'" (Joel 2:25, HCSB).
"... God left him to test him and discover what was in his heart," (cf. 2 Chron. 32:31, HCSB).
"... It is necessary to pass through many troubles on our way to the kingdom of God," (cf. Acts 14:22, HCSB).
We all must endure the fires of the testing of our faith to ensure its reality and genuineness. It's more precious than gold and silver which are refined by fire. It's not for God's sake that we get tested--He knows all and doesn't learn from the experience--it's we who learn and must realize for ourselves how strong we are in the Lord and whether our faith is strong enough to endure hardship, or whether it's just fair-weather faith. When the chips are down we must find out where our heart is and what we're made of! We should be proud to be able to say in sympathy: Been there, done that! And put ourselves in their shoes and be on the same page.
Job, the patron saint and poster child of suffering par excellence, was tested, but not beyond his ability! He may have questioned God and defended his own record but he was self-righteous, and his faith hung in there and he never gave up the ship! He left the bosom of the home and thought outside the box to wonder what was happening and to answer his miserable comforters who really were his critics. We can all relate to his depression and can find ourselves in a melancholy mood too sometimes, but this was severe and he was experiencing the doldrums and was in the pits, in a real funk! The Bible says that when we are being tested at least our friends shouldn't dessert us and we should find comfort and solace with them as we seek empathy. Job had the additional discomfort of being condemned by his "comforters" and "friends."
Second Corinthians 1:4 says that God is a God of comfort and allows us to experience hardship and trial so we can comfort others with the comfort that we have received. We should be able to relate to others and put ourselves in their shoes. Paul said in Phil. 3:10 that he wanted to know Christ and the fellowship of His suffering-to suffer with Him! There is a union and fellowship in suffering and God not only calls us to faith, but to suffering on behalf of Christ to fulfill His passion and to glorify God through them. For we are participating in the sufferings of Christ (cf. Col. 1:24).
When we get saved and surrender our wills to His and give up the ownership of our lives to be directed by God's will to His glory, we enroll in the school of suffering and decide to take up our cross daily and be willing to suffer for His name's sake--no cross--no crown! We must learn to endure hardship to be good soldiers in Christ because this comes with the territory and we sign up for it! It's only to be expected to suffer and should consider it an honor to be counted worthy to suffer for the sake of the Name!
The trials we have endured are like stripes on our shoulders or feathers in our cap and could be seen as the red badge of courage or our Purple Heart to show that we have been tried in the course of battle in the angelic conflict. The purpose of our suffering may never be answered, for God owes us no explanation and isn't accountable to us (He's too deep to explain Himself to us too kind to be cruel and to wise to make a mistake), but we must learn to endure not only during the good times but through thick and thin when faith isn't so easy when push comes to shove and faith isn't an automatic given!
The uniqueness of our faith is that we believe in a suffering God who bore our sorrows and griefs and didn't exempt Himself from hardship and suffering, so we can know He feels us in our pain and knows where we are in our time of need. Adversity, discipline, suffering, and trials are inevitable but that's how we gain Christlikeness. Soli Deo Gloria!
We all must endure the fires of the testing of our faith to ensure its reality and genuineness. It's more precious than gold and silver which are refined by fire. It's not for God's sake that we get tested--He knows all and doesn't learn from the experience--it's we who learn and must realize for ourselves how strong we are in the Lord and whether our faith is strong enough to endure hardship, or whether it's just fair-weather faith. When the chips are down we must find out where our heart is and what we're made of! We should be proud to be able to say in sympathy: Been there, done that! And put ourselves in their shoes and be on the same page.
Job, the patron saint and poster child of suffering par excellence, was tested, but not beyond his ability! He may have questioned God and defended his own record but he was self-righteous, and his faith hung in there and he never gave up the ship! He left the bosom of the home and thought outside the box to wonder what was happening and to answer his miserable comforters who really were his critics. We can all relate to his depression and can find ourselves in a melancholy mood too sometimes, but this was severe and he was experiencing the doldrums and was in the pits, in a real funk! The Bible says that when we are being tested at least our friends shouldn't dessert us and we should find comfort and solace with them as we seek empathy. Job had the additional discomfort of being condemned by his "comforters" and "friends."
Second Corinthians 1:4 says that God is a God of comfort and allows us to experience hardship and trial so we can comfort others with the comfort that we have received. We should be able to relate to others and put ourselves in their shoes. Paul said in Phil. 3:10 that he wanted to know Christ and the fellowship of His suffering-to suffer with Him! There is a union and fellowship in suffering and God not only calls us to faith, but to suffering on behalf of Christ to fulfill His passion and to glorify God through them. For we are participating in the sufferings of Christ (cf. Col. 1:24).
When we get saved and surrender our wills to His and give up the ownership of our lives to be directed by God's will to His glory, we enroll in the school of suffering and decide to take up our cross daily and be willing to suffer for His name's sake--no cross--no crown! We must learn to endure hardship to be good soldiers in Christ because this comes with the territory and we sign up for it! It's only to be expected to suffer and should consider it an honor to be counted worthy to suffer for the sake of the Name!
The trials we have endured are like stripes on our shoulders or feathers in our cap and could be seen as the red badge of courage or our Purple Heart to show that we have been tried in the course of battle in the angelic conflict. The purpose of our suffering may never be answered, for God owes us no explanation and isn't accountable to us (He's too deep to explain Himself to us too kind to be cruel and to wise to make a mistake), but we must learn to endure not only during the good times but through thick and thin when faith isn't so easy when push comes to shove and faith isn't an automatic given!
The uniqueness of our faith is that we believe in a suffering God who bore our sorrows and griefs and didn't exempt Himself from hardship and suffering, so we can know He feels us in our pain and knows where we are in our time of need. Adversity, discipline, suffering, and trials are inevitable but that's how we gain Christlikeness. Soli Deo Gloria!