Today’s Devotional: Predestined for Trials
We were never promised that life in Christ would be easy. In Acts 14:22, Paul and Barnabas tell the disciples of Christ that “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” They delivered this message shortly after Paul had been stoned and left for dead!
Spurgeon writes in Morning and Evening that God’s people are predestined for trials. It’s an inescapable part of our life, but we must remember that trials develop our character:
God’s people have their trials. It was never designed by God, when he chose his people, that they should be an untried people. They were chosen in the furnace of affliction; they were never chosen to worldly peace and earthly joy. Freedom from sickness and the pains of mortality was never promised them; but when their Lord drew up the charter of privileges, he included chastisements amongst the things to which they should inevitably be heirs. Trials are a part of our lot; they were predestinated for us in Christ’s last legacy. So surely as the stars are fashioned by his hands, and their orbits fixed by him, so surely are our trials allotted to us: he has ordained their season and their place, their intensity and the effect they shall have upon us. Good men must never expect to escape troubles; if they do, they will be disappointed, for none of their predecessors have been without them. Mark the patience of Job; remember Abraham, for he had his trials, and by his faith under them, he became the “Father of the faithful.”
Read the rest of the devotional at Christians Classics Ethereal Library.
What trials have you experienced? How has God shaped you through them?
My trial or should I say trial(s) started in 2006, whne God called my soulmate home. For whatever reason, I have yet to understand. They say something good comes from something bad but I simply do not see it. There has been nothing good, and only one trial after another. Can someone explain this to me….
As a child of God, trials occur for many different reasons. Some are used for discipline … if we accept correction from our earthly parents … how much more should we expect from God the Father when we sin? Sometimes trials are used to teach us patience and perseverance. Some may occur to draw us into a closer relationship with the Father … while others come to test our faith. I, too, have suffered many trials and tribulations over the past few years and the only thing that gets me through each day is best said by Christ: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But, take heart for I have overcome the world!” When the day gets tough Anita, go to God’s word for answers … for He is always faithful … we won’t always get what we want, but He always provides for our needs! I will keep you in my prayers and may God bless you and yours in the days ahead!
I guess that we all as children of God has our own trials, different then others but to us they are overwhelming. I am not in your shoes, but my believe our trials are according to our capacity to endure and not more. the book of James tells us to consider it a joy to suffer, even disciples in the book of Acts consider it an honor to suffers for Jesus’ sake. From my own experience and I can tell you that today I trust God more then 2 years ago. And this because of my trials, I have learn to see God processing me in be more like His Son Jesus! Life is not easier today but I am more flexible and inclined to God’s leading!
May you already experience God in your trials!
Anita, I am sorry for your loss. What I have come to understand is that we all go through trials and when tragedy strikes, whether its the death of a loved one, sickness, et, that God allows us to go through it because it’s a part of our life process but the promise that God has made to us is that in our times of trial and sorrow and sickness is that he will always be there to guide and carry us through. It’s also a test of our faith because no matter how horrible or ugly life gets, if you can still say that God is God, if you can still lift your hands in praise to him, if you can still say that you trust in the promises that he has made to us, then believe in his promise that we do not suffer in vain. One day when we are ready, God will show us the beauty that was born from our pain. For everything we go through there is a reason and all we have to do is continue to trust in his word and unfailing love.
It may last a day, a month, months, 1 year, years but surely it will not last forever. You must continue in prayer. I was listening to creflor dollar yestaday and he was talking about what happens when we disobey God. He said there always ways that god will use to call us back to Him:
1) Conviction which most times we ignore.
2) Prophetic message from anyone, reading material or anything.
3) Hardship which is always the hardest but we always get back to God when we reach this point.
Look back at your relationship with God and if anything went wrong somewhere, repent. if not, you are simply going through a trial which will not last forever.
God Bless.
Continue thanking God even through the hardtimes.
it is very hard when you love some one and they are taken from you it hurts but always know that god ways are not our way and that gos love you it will be soon over
our trials draws us closer to God:and we learn to depend upon Him for our every need.i pray this give you comfort and answer your question
My wife went home to be with the Lord February 3rd 2007. Her death was unexpected and sudden through complications from a apendectomy. She was three weeks shy of 41, young by man’s standard. I have come to realize several truths about God and His creation; that as we live our life here on this earth we often don’t consider. He tells us many things in His word the Bible. The Bible is true and does not lie. We approach the Bible often from a perspective of how will it make my life here on earth all the more better while promising me a salvation from an eternal hell due to my sin and Jesus’ saving grace.
The Bible tells us flat out that this world is not our home. It is tempoary and will be passing away and everything in it. God making us in His image has put eternity in our hearts. We have a sense of living forever and we will but not here in this earthly life.
Your wife is home now, she is with the Lord I trust had she put her faith in Jesus while living here on this earth. Man is destined to life forever, God’s word says it and we sense it in our hearts.
When a loved one dies, there is no pain in this world as awful as that. It ripes your heart right out of your chest and the pain of the loss never goes away. What remains is a longing to see her again. We look back over our lives together and relive the good memories in our minds and hearts and that is a comfort. We find as time passes that the pain is less intense, but still intense even after three years has passed.
The word says, God is near the broken hearted. That is true. I have come to understand that God truly is near the broken hearted, it is the place where we meet Him face to face and heart to heart. He made us and He knows us better than we even know ourselves. You see He wants us to know Him and to trust Him inspite of our circumstances. He is ever so near to us in our deepest of darkness during the tear filled moments where we experience our loss at it’s deepest place. God is there and He causes that expression of our pain and anguish to squeeze the fullness of our tears from us. After such episodes there is a sence of calm after the storm, as the hope of His promises begin to seep into our minds and hearts as we come to realize that this earth is not our home.
The Lord points us home through His word. We are not to put all our eggs in the earthly basket, as the earthly basket will wear out and fall apart leaving our eggs broken all over the place. He has a better basket that He calls us to put our eggs into, it is His Heavenly baskert. Our home is in heaven and He calls us to come to Him there.
When our loved ones leave this earthly sphere and depart to places unknown we grieve and we grieve and we miss them and want them back. We want our old life, our old routines, and our old comforts to be restored.
The reality is that there is something unimaginably better ahead of us in store for us that we can not even imagine. The trial you are in my friend is probably one of the most difficult you will ever face in this life, here on earth. Take heart, as our etrnal life was never ment to be spent here on this earth that God in His word says is passing away. We are destined for heaven, a place without end. Forever and ever, that is unimaginable but we know in our hearts that we were meant to live forever and ever and I believe that is why it hurts so much when the wife you love with all your heart is taken from you.
He gives and takes away, our Lord. He tells us this in His word, we don’t look at His word from a eternal perspective but from a “whats in it for me” earthly perspective. The Lord my friend wants you to find the truth. Death brings us to the brink of that truth.
I wish I had more time to finish the entire thought, but need to go. I pray that you will find His comfort and that He will draw you even closer to Himself and that you will lean on Him in your life like never before. God bless you, I hope this short message from a brother living with the grief of loosing my wife will help you in finding God and trusting His plan, even though you do not understand it.
do not think of your trials as continuous, but rather God’s way of refining you and preparing you for the goodness He has in store for you. When i lost my loved one in 2000, i prayed to God to take me, i thank God for websites like this and the people of God around me, here i am today,
thank God for the time spent with your loved one, and meditate on His words and promises,He will give you peace. i will remember you in my prayers