Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
Proverbs 6:6-8
Just as Proverbs 6:6-8 teaches us to prepare for hard times as the ant does by gathering her food during harvest to have for the cold bareness of winter, so is the child of God to gather the word of God before the sure trials of life come.
Ecc.12:1 “Remember now the Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw near [old age] when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;”
Old age brings certain hardships that you can prepare for in your younger, healthier years. But some of life’s trials give you no warning; they just happen.
When you go through a hard and pressing trial and you don’t do so well it should be a lesson to you to dig deeper in God’s word for your spiritual food. That hard and pressing trial will not be your last. This is why going to a sound bible teaching church is so important. Merely observing a ritualistic service, or singing a lot of songs, or hearing the same gospel messages week after week will not prepare you and me to face our trials.
As I said two weeks ago your mental attitude during the trials of life is so important to your Christian witness and success in that trial, not to mention your emotional stability and mental sanity.
The reason some pastors spend so much of their time counseling folks is because their people have so many things that happen to them in life that they are not prepared to handle. This is understandable if you have not been saved very long, but it is not understandable that a seasoned believer should need so much personal counseling.
Giving God’s people counsel from the Bible, from the pulpit, is God’s primary channel for guiding his people through the trials of life. I Tim.4:16; and Eph.4:13-16 verifies this, and if I could just get more Christians to understand this, but so many will not stay here long enough to get that counsel. If they do not get what they think is relevant to their current situation within a week or two or a month or two of their attendance they never come back; that is, if they were looking for the truth to start with. Some believers think they only need biblical teaching to meet their current needs. They do not consider that God knows their needs way in advance and that the preacher can prepare them unknowingly for those unsuspecting trials of life. This is part of the genius of Christ’s institution of the local church and the God-ordained pastor-teacher. We need the whole counsel of scriptures to get a balanced diet for healthy Christian living, Acts 20:28-30.
Soul winning all the time won’t cut it. Current events won’t cut it. Prophesy all the time won’t cut it. We need to have all areas of life covered from scriptural teaching and preaching because we are subject to all areas of our lives being challenged. This is why we do expository preaching here. We can cover so much material by hitting each verse, or by doing categorical studies.
Another aspect of your trials is they offer you the unique opportunity to use what knowledge you have of God’s word to match your situation. Paul said in Phil.4:11-12 “for I have learned, in whatever state I am, in this to be content, I know how to be made low and I know how to abound; everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” And in all of these variegated trials in Paul’s life he came to realize through scripture, that he could deal with all circumstances because Christ strengthened him.
When you exercise faith God is glorified, and you build up eternal rewards for trusting in God’s promises, James 1:12.
Heb.11:6 says God rewards those who diligently seek him.
What you are rewarded with in times of trials is the peace of God that passes all human understanding. The rewards of God may not come immediately after you have learned the teaching; the reward may be kept in reserve until you face your trials and testing.
The instinct to trust God does not come at the time of your trials; it is developed prior to the trials when you are faithfully, humbly submitting yourself to the communication of God’s word. And when it is time to respond to your trial the Holy Spirit will bring the teaching to your memory center and you will have the confidence that you will make it. You will be able to see the good that can come out of it where others will not see things as you do. You will experience the presence of the Lord where others will not.
Others may resent God for the same things for which you praise God. They may become bitter by the things you are able to understand just as Job’s wife became bitter when Job insisted in trusting the Lord.
So many believers loose interest in spiritual growth when they are prosperous and life is good.
Trials also help to propel your spiritual growth. They position you to receive the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, which is spiritual maturity. As we have said, James 1:12 proclaims there is a crown of life to be earned if we keep the faith during trials and he says we show we keep the faith as demonstration of our love for the Lord. Some folks, even believers, become bitter when they are experiencing trials in life. They may blame God for allowing their heartache or misfortune to happen. They are not prepared. And though we cannot prepare for every trial in life, those unique trials are meant to offer us the eye opening experience of the temporality of this earthly life wherein God would have us start looking up to him more than looking to this world for comfort and peace. These trials help to wean us from the world. This world’s comfort and peace is only temporary and it is certainly limited. God’s peace and comfort is not limited. We have all witnessed some believer who is terminally ill or who has lost everything to a house fire or flood or lost a son or daughter in war and they have the most heart warming attitude and witness for the Lord. And then there are those who have suffered a little financial set back, or they have had a hospital stay for some reason and they are as bitter as bitter can be. Their instinct to be bitter during their trials was developed by years of selfish servitude and godless attention, Prov.1:22-33.
The trials of the unsaved can bring them to a point of acceptance that they need the Lord; that they need their sins forgiven. Unforgiven sins will cause a tremendous amount of emotional grief during the trials of the lost, just as well as the trials of the saved.
The Lord allows the weight of our trials to press the soul so as to introduce us to the One who can take all the weight from us and put it on his own shoulders. Matt.11:28-29
“Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
If the Lord is not worth our time, especially when he calls us out to worship him in Spirit and in truth, then he will be hard to find when the day of calamity comes, and those days come upon us all. Let’s be wise people, and let’s be prepared when our trials come