Faith Building Trials

My first year as a Christian was definitely full of trials.  A rocky marriage that ended in divorce.  A layoff from a job I loved because the leaders decided embezzling money was a good thing.  By the time the divorce was finalized both of us were unemployed and had to deal with the debt we had buried ourselves in following the American dream.

So how did sticking with God through this help?

For starters, God made sure I knew He had more power than anything I had experienced or tried before.  Let me just say that Satan really is out there like a roaring lion ready to devour us and he almost had me for good.  However, nothing in all that pagan spiritism filled the one hole I had inside.  Accepting Christ filled it completely beyond a doubt.

Once accepting Him I did not have a clue how to proceed.  I just knew beyond a doubt I believed this good news about what Jesus did for us.  Thankfully God already had true Christian friends in my life, so I got plugged into their church.  They encouraged me to take the First Principles Class occurring at the time.  My friends even pulled me into the drama group that started up that summer.

One of the first verses to stick with me was Joshua 1:8, Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.  You only learn about God through His Word and meditating on it.  You have to read and study it for yourself.  You need fellow Christians of maturity to discuss it with so you can grow in it.  And you definitely need a church of believers that keeps you plugged in and on that grid.

But then there is John 16:33, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."  An awesome promise, but the part that hurt was that we would have trials anyway.  So those Christians preaching the rose colored glasses version missed this point.  That’s probably why I never believed them in the first place.

In this world we will have trouble.  So I had plenty already.  Becoming a Christian did not save my first marriage.  It may have put an even bigger wedge between us.  It did not save my job or even supply me immediately with a new one.  It made me lose old friends who though I was running off on a another spiritual fad.  It did not clean up by debt immediately.

To use an old cliché, I had made my bed and I had to lie in its consequences.  Just because I became a Christian did not mean life immediately changes on the outside.  Where did it change?  On the inside.  The far more important side of things.

These trials tested my faith.  Did I really believe Jesus’ word were given to give me peace?  Did I believe He overcame the world?

I knew God wanted a relationship with me.  It was not about religion or doing ritual repetitions to get what we wanted as if our actions this way could appease God.

No, we need faith in order to please God according to Hebrews 11:6.  And what is faith?  Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

In other words, no matter what the world throws at us, no matter what we have to dig ourselves out of, in the end we win with God if we follow in faith.

So my trials that first year built up my faith.  It has taken years to get out of some of the things I put myself in before accepting Christ, but as continued sticking with Jesus I found that peace.

Now I have the new trials of disability due to MS.  It does not help the finances.  Some days I feel utterly worthless.  It is totally unpredictable other then what seems to be the constant issues.  When I feel like complaining and whining, I remember what I already got through with Jesus.  I remember God’s promises and cling to them.  My healing is still unseen.  A feeling of prosperity is not yet fully seen.  I do know God is going to give me healing, prosperity and success in His timing, a perfect timing that will blow my mind away like it always does.  But just as God told Joshua to be courageous and always keep God’s Word close, so will I.  Why else, even after long battles for the Promised Land and still more to come after his time, could Joshua keep proclaiming, Joshua 24:15, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.