pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: trial


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Joy

Reading: Psalm 40: 1-5

The psalmist bears excellent witness to the blessings of our relationship with God.  The Psalm begins by recalling a time when the writer waited patiently for God’s response.  At times this is necessary as our days, hours, and minutes do not quite align with God’s sense of time.  Yet we too can wait patiently and can continue to hold fast to hope because we know that God is loving and faithful.  God did indeed respond to the psalmist.  God lifted the writer out of the pit and gave him a firm place to stand.  This brought relief and comfort and joy to the psalmist.  To express this, God placed a hymn of praise in his mouth so that he could sing of the joy of putting his trust in the Lord.

Verse fours begins, “Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust”.  We are indeed blessed when we trust in God.  In many ways the Lord our God blesses us with the riches of His love and with His unending grace.  The psalmist gushes about the many deeds God has done and the things God has planned for mankind.  This is an expression of the joy he finds from living in a righteous relationship with God.  The psalmist is bearing witness to us so that we can follow his example and can share with others what God has done and continues to do in our lives.

The joy that comes from living with God is a joy that permeates our life.  Just as the psalmist was experiencing a time of trial at the start of the Psalm, we too will have times when we are in the midst of sadness or struggle.  Like the psalmist, when we walk through trial or spend time in the pit, we are not alone.  God continues to be present, to bring us comfort and strength, and to wrap us in the arms of His love and grace.  We walk with confidence that God is faithful, that God is with us no matter what.  We know we will get through it with God.  Ultimately, we also know that the end, whether of the trial or of this life, is just temporary.  We live with a trust in the eternal.  In this sense, we live beyond the here and now.  This is a great source of joy.

Oh, what a blessed assurance we have when we live as a child of God!  We have God’s daily presence, love, and guidance.  And we live trusting into an eternal future with God.  Oh how He loves you and me.  Praise and glory be to God the Father!


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Arise, Shine

Reading: Isaiah 60: 1-6

At times, things can seem dark.  For individuals, sudden and unexpected loss can make the world heavy and can make it hard to get through the day to day.  And at times, even the normal day to day life can be a bit hard at times.  One only has to spend a little time watching or listening to the news to develop a sense that the world is bleak and gloomy.  Story after story brings more bad news.  This was the feel of the times into which Isaiah writes.  The exiles have been gone so long it seems like they will never return.  Things in Jerusalem have continued to erode – the walls, the food, the hope, …

Isaiah opens this writing with hope – glorious hope – “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you”.  These words contain much hope.  God is returning!  Into all of this darkness comes the Lord Almighty.  It is such good news that Isaiah repeats it again in the next verse.  He goes on to write of the return of sons and daughters from exile.  Then he writes of how other nations will see the glory of God in Israel and will come with camels, gold, and incense.  Lots of good news is on the way!  Praise the Lord!

Within this chapter of joy for Israel, we too can find hope in our day to day.  If we are in the midst of a difficult time, like Israel was, it can feel like God is not there or is distant at best.  The good news is for us too – we too can find strength and hope in God.  If we seek Him, we will know God’s presence, for God is always near.  For those not dealing with a personal trial, may we arise and shine forth the glory of the Lord, for all the world to see.  May the light shine so that all may be drawn to the Lord.


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Trust

Reading: Luke 21: 10-19

Today’s passage really lays out what is ahead one day and makes it clear that God will be present through it all.  The reading opens with a view of a grim future that evokes connections to Revelation.  We do not know when, but we do know that the world will be in rough shape with all the earthquakes, famine, violence, and so forth.

Then Jesus steps back and makes it personal.  Jesus speaks of a time of persecution and trial for the believers.  Believers will be persecuted and arrested and put on trial.  Why?  So we can witness to our faith.  It is interesting that we will not be rescued from the trial by our carefully thought-out arguments.  Jesus even says not to prepare any.  He says, “Trust”.  Do not worry – “I will give you words and wisdom”.  Do not rely on your own skills and knowledge and rhetoric, but only rely on your faith.  Just like the Holy Spirit filled Peter and John when they were on trial before the Sanhedrin, so too will the Holy Spirit fill each who trusts fully in Jesus.

This message of trusting in God holds true for all believers in all times.  We need to remember this because we know that in this life we will face times of trial.  There will be difficulties.  There simply will be.  Jesus encourages us in how we approach and walk through these times.  The first thing we must do is trust in God and not in ourselves.  Once we acknowledge our absolute need for God, then we fully open ourselves up to God’s presence to work in our lives.  In this way we will bear witness to our faith in a world that doubts and questions.  By trusting fully in God we demonstrate that God is absolutely in control.  By living out a peace that passes understanding we bear witness to God.

God is faithful and God is loving.  When we trust fully in God, we experience these things.  There will be pain and hurt in this life, but when we hold fast to our faith in God, we retain a hope greater than anything in life can defeat.  May we trust fully in God, knowing our eternity rests securely in God’s loving hands.


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Promise = Hope

Reading: Isaiah 65: 21-25

In the new kingdom, all will be blessed.  The works of the peoples’ hands will bring enjoyment.  The homes they build and the crops they plant will be enjoyed.  Nothing will be done in vain.  Even before their prayers are spoken, God will hear and answer them.  Life will be wonderful when the earth is renewed by God.  The renewing will affect all things.  Even the wolf and the lamb will lie down together!  There will be absolute peace and all will be blessed by God Almighty.  We long for the day!

The promise and hope in these words from Isaiah were just what the Israelites needed to hear.  Times were very bleak and it was an easy time to begin to lose faith in God.  Nothing in life seemed to be favoring the chosen people.  While the people knew their situation was the consequence of their sins, at some point we all say, “How long”?

We too have uttered this question to God.  Like the Israelites, we may have wandered from our faith and there is a consequence that we must endure for our choices.  Often we too get to the point of longing to return to ‘normal’ in our lives.  At other times in life, our time of suffering is not caused by us.  We can be adversely affected by another’s sin or choices.  We can also be affected by the circumstances of life – a diagnosis or sudden loss comes our way and we suffer and experience pain.  In all of these scenarios, we long to move past and to come to terms with our hurt or loss, but it can be so hard.

The promise of a new heaven and earth cannot remove the hurt or pain or suffering.  But it can give us a new sense of hope.  In this promise we can find hope and strength and comfort and maybe even a little healing.  One day all will be restored.  May we cling to this hope.  The promise is true!


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In Peace

Reading: 2 Thessalonians 1: 1-4

“Grace and peace to you” is how Paul begins his second letter to the Thessalonians.  In our churches, during our worship services, many of our congregations practice something similar in our times of greeting or the passing of the peace.  We are reminded, through these practices, of our love and fellowship with each other and with Christ.

At the time Paul wrote this letter, the church was growing.  But is was also facing persecution and abuse from the much larger, non-Christian, segment of Thessaloniki.  Hence, Paul’s words of encouragement to persevere.  Persecution and abuse may not be the words we would use today, but there is definite conflict with the larger society outside the church.  The messages of the world and the messages of the church often run head-on into each other.  At times this means saying “No!” to or disagreeing with the messages of the world.  Inadvertently, at times this will draw negative attention and sometimes it will draw conflict.

We usually end our services by sending forth the congregation with a blessing of peace and some words of encouragement as we go back out into the world.  Often these words include reminders to share it bring Christ’s love out there with us.  As we bring our faith out into the world, God’s peace is a good thing to bring along.  As we ourselves face trial or persecution, it is a good thing to have along.  As we enter alongside another struggling in life, it is a good thing to share.

Paul notes that the church is growing.  A church in the midst of a culture that was largely non-Christian is growing.  It was growing because the believers were living out their faith in the world outside the walls of their church.  The same principle works today.  Christ’s love is attractional.  It draws us in.  It will draw others in as well.  So go forth in peace, being the light and love of Jesus Christ in a broken world.  Go forth to love and serve the Lord.


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Cannot Be Shaken

Reading: Hebrews 12: 25-29

This passage in Hebrews was written in a time when following Christ could be very dangerous.  It could cost you your life.  While many of us do not face this danger today, in some parts of the world it is the reality.  Christians around the world die for their faith daily.  While most of us do not face this ultimate price, being a follower has a ‘cost’ to all believers.  This passage today is meant to encourage all believers and to remind us if the hope we have in Christ.

In following Christ, the cost can come in a number of ways.  It can be economic or social or relational.  As a Christian our choices and decisions can cost us popularity, status, position, or power.  It may cost us success as we choose to live following God’s ways.  We may choose to live less extravagantly as we choose to honor God first with our resources.  Our faith may cost us friendships, business partnerships, and even familial relationships as others choose to walk a worldly path.  There can be many costs.

Hebrews reminds us that we are one day “receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken”.  While in this earthly kingdom we face many ‘costs’.  They can shake us at times.  They can make us question and doubt.  We can also have our faith and our lives shaken by forces out of our control.  Economic downturns, violence and wars, disease, and death are just a few examples of things that can shake us.  Life and the circumstances that surround it and fragile and often we have little or no control over it.  Yet in the midst of this stands Jesus, our rock.  In the here and now, Jesus is our unshakable foundation.  As we lived out our blessed lives here on earth, we know beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Jesus awaits us in the heavens, the kingdom that cannot be shaken.


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Refuge

Reading: Psalm 71: 1-6

The psalmist is experiencing a rough season.  The writer desires to seek refuge in God and to find a place away from their attackers.  There are pleas for God to rescue and deliver, to save.  The psalmist turns to God for help.

At times in life we may also feel like we are under assault.  We may feel like things are stacked against us or that life is a lot uphill lately.  When this is just a day or maybe a few days in a row, we can usually lean on God to help push us through.  Soon enough we see daylight and are thankful for God’s presence and strength that helped us endure and remain faithful.  But what about those times when a few days turns into a few weeks, maybe longer?  It is in this place that we find the psalmist.

We can relate to the psalmist.  It feels as if attackers and other negative people are all around us.  We think we are remaining faithful and obedient to serving God.  So why the conflict?  Why the opposition?  It seems unfair and unjust.  It becomes a tipping point.

Maybe we have stepped where we shouldn’t.  Maybe we have followed our own plans instead of God’s.  So maybe the opposition is calling us into check, back into alignment with God.  Maybe the trial is to refine or define or purify our faith.  When we are deep in a time of trial the temptation can be to turn away from God and to run to something else.  So maybe the discomfort forces us to really look at our faith, to define or refine our trust in God, or to deepen our faith.  It may be a season that yields growth.

There will be times of conflict and opposition when we serve God.  It is Satan’s best trick – doubt, questioning, fear.  It is his attempt to derail us.  The psalmist wrote, “Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go”.  May the Lord our God always be our rock of refuge.  In God we can trust.


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Rooted

Reading: Psalm 52

David is in the midst of a trial in Psalm 52.  King Saul has become crazed with jealousy and paranoia and is pursuing David to kill him.  David is on the run for his life.  He knows in his heart that he is in the ‘right’ and that God is with him, yet he faces this trial.  Despite being physically on the move, David states that he is like “an olive tree flourishing in the house of God”.  In the midst of this crazy pursuit by Saul, David remains rooted in his faith in the God he loves.

In the song “Always”, artist Kristian Stanfill sings, “My foes are many, they rise against me, I will hold my ground”.  In our life we can often relate to David’s trial and to the thoughts expressed in this song.  At times we can feel beset on all sides.  In these moments it can be easy or tempting to pull up the roots we have in God and to turn to other means to deal with the fear or pain or doubt or whatever else we are facing.

David wrote, “I will trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever”.  The songs says, “I will not fear, His promise is true, my God will come through always, always”.  In both we find the blessed assurance that God will always live us and will always be there for us.  For our part, we must stay rooted in God.

It can be hard to do this.  The song goes on to day, “Trouble surrounds me, chaos abounding, I will test in You”.  It is a faith deeply rooted in God that can rest in Him in the midst of a trial.  To be deeply rooted requires daily watering and fertilizing.  This day may we water our faith in the Word of God and allow it to permeate our faith, to fertilize it as its message sinks deep down into our soul and strengthens our faith.  May we do this day by day do that when the winds and rain of life come, our faith will be deeply rooted on the true foundation, Jesus Christ.


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Righteous Anger

Reading: Luke 9: 51-62

As God incarnate, as human flesh fully alive in this world, it makes sense that Jesus got angry.  Being divine did not keep Jesus from weeping a tear for Lazarus, from being joyful over a lost sinner being saved, or from being moved by a poor widow’s offering.  So why should we be surprised that at times Jesus got angry too?  Too often we want Jesus to be only the warm and fuzzy and loving.

The reality is that Jesus exhibited anger at times throughout His ministry.  He gets angry at the Pharisees and Sadducees and even at His own disciples.  And I am sure that He gets angry at me and at you from time to time as well!  In this story today, what lies ahead in Jerusalem has surely put all on edge; Jesus is probably as likely to break into tears as into a rant.

As disciples of Christ, we are ever seeking to become more and more like Him.  Jesus felt all emotions, as do we.  We should.  Anger has a place.  We might be angry over an injustice and be moved by our anger to intervene.  We might be angry at ourselves for falling into sin and the emotion may lead us over the stumbling block to a place of change and transformation.  Anger is also present in our prayer life.  In times of deep emotions we may need to rail at God out of the depths of our pain and suffering.  God can take it.  He desires an open and honest relationship.  This day may we offer all to God.  May we offer all that is inside of us – joy, pain, praise, anger, love, adoration.  May our relationship with God be all it can be.


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Presence

Reading: Psalm 77: 1-2 & 11-20

Psalm 77 begins with, “I cried out to God for help; I cried out for God to hear me”.  In this opening line we can feel connection.  Whether recent, long ago, or present, we have all had occasions to cry out to God and to lay out great need at His feet.  When we find ourselves at the end of our hope, we desperately reach out to God and beg Him to hear our prayer.

Then the psalmist goes on remind himself of all that God has done.  In this way we too can recall times we have been in God’s presence in our past and can again rejoice in the blessings we have and are currently experiencing.  Then he goes on to recount God’s goodness and the many miracles God has worked in the past.  In the midst of a difficult time it is important to think on God’s love, goodness, and power.

As the Psalm concludes, the writer recalls God’s leading of the people.  God still desires to lead us each day of our lives as well.  God seeks to be an active and engaged participant in our lives.  In times of stress or trial it can be easy to forget God’s role in our lives.  Even in those times that He seems to be absent, He is always ad near as our next prayer.

God’s desire is to heal and save the world.  The master plan is to make all things new again.  There is hope in our faith.  We do go through dark moments in our lives, but we also dance in God’s light and love.  May today be a day of dancing.  And even if the dance is slow and mournful, may it also be bathed in God’s presence.