Trials

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."
- 1 Peter 1:6-7

I will admit that the past few days have seen all kinds of trials shoved my way. From disappointed hopes to juvenile arguments to tense moments of uncertainty and even to anger and frustration toward my brothers, the past few days have been a whirlwind of emotion, and I can say that I easily eclipsed in a couple days my amount of tears shed from the first half of the year. Satan has been attacking me full force, dragging me away from my brothers and my God, trying to convince me that he is right and not God. But I think all of this has been serving to teach me a lesson of dependence on God and Christ's salvation.

One of the guys on project made a comment last night that took me aback. He said that regardless of whether we got hurt or injured, exiled or ostracized, if anything bad happened to us, as long as it brought us closer to Christ and into a better understanding of him, then it was all worth it in the end. At the time, that really bothered me, mostly because brothers had really been hurt (albeit unintentionally) in the name of community building. It seemed ridiculous to me that someone getting hurt could result in anything good.

But after thinking about it for awhile, and listening to a sermon on trials by Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, I have actually come to believe that that is the right attitude. Bad things come into our lives not to harm us but to bring us closer to God and Christ. As Peter says in his first letter, trials work to strengthen and perfect our faith, to prove that it is genuine. If we stick with God through the hard times, He will build us up and continue to shape us into the sons and daughters that He wants us to be. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." - Romans 8:28. God works in ALL things, good or bad. He never guarantees our lives will be good, so we should not expect things to go well all the time, but we should take heart in the trials because God is working in us.

In fact, we should rejoice in our trials, because God is trying to improve us. I, being a perfectionist, am always trying to make myself better, but inevitably I fail in my efforts. So the thought that God Himself is trying to make me into a better person is actually kind of exciting. That he cares enough about me to want me to be a better person is humbling and astounding. And we must also remember that we have the greatest gift that has ever been given: Jesus Christ! How we do not rejoice in that always, I do not know, but whenever we face hard times, we should hold on to the fact that, no matter what the world throws at us, we still have Jesus, and when this brief span of eternity called life is over, we will be taken up to heaven to spend eternity with the Creator of the Universe, our Savior and our God.

I hope that you all take heart in this truth, and remember that we have Jesus and that, through trials, God is trying to bring us into a better understanding of Him and His love.