When difficulties come into our life, we don’t want some pious answers that tickle our mind, we want real answers, real solutions, we want practical help.
We want to know that God is personally involved in the very thing that is bothering us.
When you and I recognize that we are walking thru some valley in our life regardless the nature.
What is happening is our faith is being tried!
We are in the process of making a decision, sometimes moment by moment, sometimes over a period of time.
Are we going to say, “I’m I going to trust God in what He says, regardless in what He does?”
“I’m I going to believe God, no matter what He allows?”
“I’m I going to believe God, no matter what my circumstances are?”
That’s when you faith gets on trial!
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE THAT GOD HAS IN MIND, WHEN OUR FAITH IS ON TRIAL!
1-Verse 6-Though now for a little while, if need be-It draws our attention to Him because sometimes we float along in the Christian life and we begin to drift away from Him, the along comes a situation we don’t have an answer for and what happens we begin to examine some things and we recognize that God hasn’t been first.
There is always a positive motivation in God’s heart about your test of faith, it is never to destroy us but to build us up!
2-Stretching
He doesn’t take a young Christian and stretch him or her so far they break, He stretches them just a little bit.
None of know what the limit is, all of us have said, “I can’t take any more, this has got to be the end!”
He gives us a little break, then He starts stretching us again, and you know what we discover that He knows our limitation and we don’t.
He is gently and lovingly increasing our capacity to serve Him, the more we are able to believe Him for, the more God is able to do in our life, so we’ll be able to receive more, to accomplish more, and we will be able to bring more praise, more honor and more glory to Him.
Verse 7-Genuieness-The end result is to be approved and accepted
3-Develop us in our faith
He wants us to be developed in every aspect of our faith.
Is it not true you are able to believe God for some things and not believe God for other things?
God does test us in the same area again and again.
Once your faith gets tested 2 or 3 times in the area, you can conclude that you have failed the test last time.
Until you and I are able to pass the test, to bear up under it, to be approved, and once we can do that He moves on to something else.
Why, so that when we are telling people about Jesus and what He can do for them, not just because the Bible says so, but we can say it with conviction because of our experiences, because we have been thru the valleys of life and say to them, “The Lord is sufficient! The Lord is faithful!
4-To bring praise and honor
Every seen someone who is going thru a difficult time but they have a confidence in them and they don’t point to the problem they point to the solution, which is found in Jesus!
The man’s house that was destroyed by a tornado and the sign that read-We still trust in God!
