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Trials
There are things
that test our humility. There are plenty of people who for
their own purposes will flatter us and try to make us
think that we are great personages or that we have done
some great thing. They will praise us and "make
over" us generally for some selfish purpose. If we
heed what they say, we may become puffed up over it, and
come to esteem ourselves more highly than we ought. If we
do something that is praiseworthy, we very often find
within ourselves a feeling of having done so well that we
become elated over it. This also is a test of our
humility. Let us keep our feet on the ground no matter how
much God blesses us. No matter how much praise comes to
us, no matter how many things are said in our favor, let
us keep balanced, and let not our humility be turned into
pride.
There are things that test our love. Can we love God
just as much after he has let us pass through a hard trial
as we did before? If our brethren do something to wound
us, can we still love them? If people misunderstand us and
attribute wrong motives to us, can we still love them?
These are the tests that count. These are the tests that
test love. These are the things that prove whether it is
genuine or not. If we are despised and persecuted,
misrepresented and abused, can we still love? If people
are our enemies, can we still love them?
There are trials that test our steadfastness - whether
we will just stand still and suffer and endure until God
sees that it is enough and takes us out of the fire. Other
things test our patience. These are often very small
tests, and the smaller they are, the more they test our
patience. Sometimes we need to keep a good hold upon
ourselves and "let patience have her perfect
work," that we may be "perfect and entire,
wanting nothing." No matter in what way we are
tested, if we have a will to be true God will see to it
that we have grace to trust him, so that we may overcome
and be "more than conquerors through him that loved
us" (Romans 8:37).
The Value of Trials
Peter tells us that the trial of our faith is
"much more precious than the gold that perisheth,
though it be tried with fire" (I Peter 1:7). The
question that now confronts us is whether we place such a
value as that upon our trials. What will men undergo to
get gold? They will scale lofty mountains and wade through
deep snows. They will face piercing winds and all sorts of
perils, if they may but have the hope of getting gold. Our
trials are still more precious than gold, and it seems
that we ought to be willing to bear them when we view them
from that standpoint. However, there are a great many
Christians who shrink from trials. Why do they? If they
believe that trials are so valuable, why do they shrink?
Ah, that is the trouble: they do not believe what Peter
said. They can see no gold in their trials. They see no
value in them whatever. They are something to be gotten
away from.
The trouble is that we often look at the wrong thing.
If a man goes after gold and looks at the hardships
instead of the gold, he will not get any gold. But the
gold-hunter does not look at the things that lie between
him and the precious metal. He looks at the gold. He keeps
his mind and his heart upon that. He presses forward
through everything to gain that gold. There is gold for
you and me in every trial. The trial lies between us and
the gold. If we look at the trial, we may forget the gold,
and that is just what is the trouble with so many. They
can see nothing but the trials. Beyond these lies the
gold, yes, something far more precious than gold. Get your
eyes off the trial. Look beyond it to the gold. Keep your
mind and your heart set upon the gold, and you will find
that you can face the trial a great deal easier than if
you saw nothing beyond it. The gold of Christian character
comes only through stress and storm. Fair-weather
Christians never amount to much for God or souls, nor do
they develop rugged characters. They are always contented
with little fruit.
Results of Trials
God always works out something worth while from our
trials if we are true in them. He does not try us merely
to be trying us. He has a definite purpose to accomplish.
Of Israel he said, "Who fed thee in the wilderness
with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might
humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good
at they latter end" (Deuteronomy 8:16). The humbling
and the proving were only that he might do them good at
the latter end. So it is with us: God humbles us and tries
us just to do us good later. God's purpose is also made
very plain in the parable of the figs in the twenty-fourth
chapter of Jeremiah: "Thus saith the Lord, the God of
Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them
that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent
out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans, for
their good. For I will set mine eyes upon them for good,
and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build
them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and
not pluck them up. And I will give them an heart to know
me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I
will be their God: for they shall return unto me with
their whole heart" (verses 5-7). God did not permit
them to be carried into captivity simply as a punishment.
It was that, to be sure; but his purpose was greater and
more kindly than that. It was that he might do them good -
that they should turn to him with their whole heart, and
that he should bring them back to their own land and make
them a holier and more trusting people than before.
Job knew the good that was going to come out of his
trial, and he said, "He knoweth the way that I take:
when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold"
(Job 23:10). The Psalmist learned this same lesson. He
says: "O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice
of his praise to be heard: which holdeth our soul in life,
and suffereth not our feet to be moved. For thou, O God,
hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.
Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst affliction
uon our loins. Thou hast caused men to ride over our
heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou
broughtest us out into a wealthy place" (Psalms 66:
8-12). This is the way the Bible speaks throughout when it
speaks of trials well borne. We may get into a net, and
affliction may be laid upon us; men may ride over our
heads; we may go through fire and through water; but the
outcome of it will be that we shall come out into a
wealthy place. And then, like the Psalmist, we can say,
"Oh, bless our God!" Take your Bible and read
also James 1:12; I Peter 1:7; and 4:12, 13.
There is another text that we shall do well to study
over and over: "But we glory in tribulations also;
knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience,
experience; and experience, hope; And hope maketh not
ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts" (Romans 5:85-).
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