Life is full of curve balls; incredible highs, extreme lows and many days somewhere in between. We all love to celebrate the highs. Just a couple days ago Jonali and I celebrated our 11 year anniversary overnight on the island pictured above (Moreton Island). Facebook is full of people’s highs and fabricated highs. And I find that when we preach and listen to other preachers we have a tendency to share the highlight reel; which I attribute to a desire to encourage and lift up the body by celebrating the triumphs of our King.
However, there’s another side to the journey of faith. One that’s maybe a little less talked about but every bit as important to be aware of. It’s the path that often leads into and out of those mountain top experiences, yet has the potential to shipwreck us if we aren’t prepared.
I’m talking about what we often consider the extreme lows. These are the challenges we face that test our resolve, that challenge our authenticity, and that “make or break us”. We often refer to them as trials or persecutions.
Pushing God Away When We Need Him Most
I believe one of the biggest risks to our “remaining in Him” is the danger of not becoming grounded in His word applied in our lives. We should walk through life armed and dangerous; not waiting to be picked off. The parable of the sower and the seed touches upon this important point (as do many scriptures). It’s in our ignorance that we wrongly attribute the blame, misunderstand the reality and necessity of trials and persecutions and lack a plan to overcome and win!
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
1 Peter 5:8
Lion Meat or Sober & Vigilant
The biggest danger of shipwreck is ignorant bliss. Wake up! If you’re in Christ, you’ve been drafted into an ancient war that’s still being waged against the kingdom of God. Where do you stand? Are you Hammy the Hamstrung Antelope waiting your turn to be hunted? Or maybe you’re not even being hunted because you just rolled over and surrendered to the lion. I want to be more like Rambo the Lion Hunter. That’s what Jesus is like. He came to destroy the works of darkness and invites you to do the same.
Want to be sober and vigilant? We must know the truth that makes us free and keep our shield up when the fiery darts fly our way.
Is The Glass Half Empty?
If you’re a glass half empty thinker, you may wish you could avoid these trials at all cost. In fact you would be hard pressed to find even a half full thinker to see the trials of life as a good thing. Who signs up for self inflicted pain? But are we looking at things with the right lens?
A Recipe for Success!
9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. 1 Peter 5:9
God gives us a three part plan to avoid becoming devil’s food cake for that roaring (or whimpering depending on how you look at it) lion.
Resist him
What does this mean? A quick word study of the Greek word for ‘resist’ tells us all we need to know:
436 anthístēmi (from 473 /antí, “opposite/against” and 2476 /hístēmi, “to stand”) – properly, take a complete stand against, i.e. a “180 degree, contrary position”; (figuratively) to establish one’s position publicly by conspicuously “holding one’s ground,” i.e. refusing to be moved (“pushed back”).
436 /anthístēmi (“oppose fully“) means to forcefully declare one’s personal conviction (where they unswervingly stand); to keep one’s possession; ardently withstand, without giving up (letting go).
[436 (anthístēmi) was a military term in classical Greek (used by Thucydides, etc.) meaning “to strongly resist an opponent” (“take a firm stand against“).]
In short, we must refuse to lose and stand our ground in Christ.
Remain Steadfast in the Faith
Everything a believer does should be done in faith. We must become unshakeable, unbreakable, unmovable. Fill yourself with the word of God; eat it and apply it to your life. Think like Jesus, walk like Jesus, respond like Jesus.
When you get the mind of Christ, you won’t need a bracelet to remind you to think ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ It will become your default.
We need to grow up into Him who is the head in all things. When we put on Christ and find ourselves fully in Him, there’s no rotting flesh of the old man left for the enemy to sniff out. He can try, but we will not be shaken!
Know You’re Not Alone
There’s a dual meaning to not being alone. The first is being aware that all of mankind faces such trials. We all go through the fires of life. We must avoid the pride of thinking we’re the exception or having a woe is me attitude thinking we’re the only one being sifted. Look no further than the author and perfecter of our faith and what He endured for us. We all get tested.
12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted 2 Timothy 2:12
1 Thessalonians 3 talks about the devil using trials to tempt us to become unsettled in our faith.
You are also not alone because God promises to be with you to the very end of the age. Which means He is with you through every trial and every injustice you traverse. He is Immanuel – God with us.
There are many more scriptures to explore but I just wanted to broach the topic and relay a different perspective than ‘the way that seems right to a man’. It is important to understand that trials must come. What defines us is how we respond when they do come. And that will directly reflect our preparation and perspective.
Perspective Through Truth
Trials are an opportunity for radical growth
2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. James 1:2-4,12
The end goal of our spiritual development is maturity. How we taxi through trials is what brings about that maturation process. If we embrace the process and keep our eyes fixed on Christ and enduring in our faith that we would come out refined and even more fruitful and Christlike than before, we can see these trials as wonderful opportunities.
Check out Peter’s prayer ending the section of 1 Peter 5 that we’ve focused on:
10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 11 To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Trials are an Opportunity to Glorify God
In fact each time we are tempted and tried, it is yet another opportunity to stand in the face of the devil, unmoved like Stephen before he was stoned, and declare through our response that we fear God and Him alone and we truly are dead to ourselves and living unto Christ.
God is Not the Author
It’s the devil that sifts us (Job 1:6, 2:1, Ja 1:13-15, Lk 22:31, 1 Pe 5:8, Rev 12:10). Enough said.
The Best Defense is a Good Offense
When we aren’t shaken it shows the devil we’ve become untouchable and he’ll have to flee and go find someone else. In the trial, don’t focus on the enemy. Be aware of his devices but set your eyes on Jesus and you will walk through it like Him.
Don’t be Wimpy
So many think trials are about suffering for Christ and get so fixated on the idea of suffering for Christ that we lose touch with our true identity and victors, over-comers and the dominion and authority we have in Him to move the mountains, not to be overcome by them. The beauty of the trial is the opportunity to test your faith in God to strengthen and deliver you. It glorifies God when He triumphs over all the works of the devil through us. There is no glory in passive defeat; which only reveals unbelief, not faith.
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent:
“Because you have done this,
You are cursed more than all cattle,
And more than every beast of the field;
On your belly you shall go,
And you shall eat dust
All the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.”
Satan might bruise His heel and ours, but praise God in Christ we stomp the serpent’s head.
Indeed He is the fourth man in the furnace. So bring on the heat. Jesus is still the King!