God longs to give us wisdom, and it is born out of perseverance. Only the testing of our faith develops the perseverance that we need. God desires to do some things in our lives that can come no other way except by our walking the path of perseverance. To become like Christ, this ordeal must be faced. We can be filled with joy even in the midst of suffering when we pursue character and not comfort. We can consider trials as the perfect environment for indescribable joy when we embrace our circumstances as God’s incubator to form us in His image.
God allows and at times causes us to go through circumstances that strip away all falsehood and leave us with our real selves. God’s ultimate intent is not to leave us faithless, but to leave us faith-full. God wants us to have no doubt of the work He has done within us, to know that we have what it takes to walk through fire.
God also knows our needs, even though at times we can be oblivious to our need for God. Trials have unique abilities to realign us with reality and position us for divine encounters. Perseverance is critical so that we don’t turn to other sources of provision. The place of our greatest vulnerability is the vacuum created between our need and God’s provision. Satan knows God fully intends to supply our every need, so he tempts us to choose another way before God meets us in the middle of the test. He tried to convince Jesus to turn stones into bread [Matthew 4:1-11]. The human condition begins to make sense when we realize that most of us are eating rocks instead of waiting on God to bring us His bread. We keep trying to meet the deepest longings of our souls apart from the God who intimately created us.
When God tests our faith, the evil one attempts to destroy our faith. While God sends us tests to draw us toward Him, Satan tempts us to draw us away from Him. We cannot be tested without being tempted. How many of us have been told that we’re going through trials or facing temptations because we are out of God’s will? Trials and temptations are not the punishment of God, but rather the process of God. Yes, sometimes our lives are in ruin and we suffer needlessly as a result of our own foolishness. But we must not assume this is always the case.
Jesus chose to wait on God, His provider. However long He must wait, He would persevere. He would rather be hungry waiting on His Father’s timing than to be found eating rocks when the bread came. Hardship does not require a famine of joy or enjoyment. It is in the crucible that we not only discover who we are, but more profoundly, who Christ is within us [Philippians 4:11-13].
"But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." James 1:4 (as referred to in your first post on the subject...)
ReplyDeleteLet us pray "As You will, Lord God, and in Your timing." This type of MTXE -- with total dependence on the work of the Holy Spirit-- is the only way! -Love, Janna