TRIALS,
PURPOSE OF
WHEN I was dating my wife, I took her to an amusement park in Baltimore. They have this ride called the Wild Mouse. I suggested this ride very strategically. You see, it was a ride that I knew would create a little fear in her and therefore create a little situation. The ride would take us way out, dive down, and then turn back on the track, returning to the starting point. Every time we rode out and the car dipped down, my wife would scream, and she’d slide over. I created this situation because I knew if the ride got bad enough, she wouldn’t stay where she was seated. She’d have to move in my direction, and of course you see where she is sitting this morning.
God creates situations, allows scenarios, and at times, causes issues. He does so because He wants to create a situation that will encourage us to slide over and to realize that we are totally and absolutely dependent on Him.987
[God’s Discipline]
Ps. 73:28; James 4:8
A LADY saw a ranger handling a three-hundred-pound loggerhead sea turtle. These are huge turtles, these loggerheads by the sea, and this particular turtle was was just laying eggs. She became somewhat disoriented, and began walking in the wrong direction, not toward the sea but farther into the sand dunes. So the ranger came and pried her from the ground, flipping her over onto her back. The ranger put chains around the loggerhead’s legs, hooked it onto his vehicle, and drug it back to the sea.
When he finally got to the edge of the water, he unhooked the animal, the loggerhead saw where it was, and it went out into the sea. I’m sure, when the loggerhead was being chained and drug, it was hard for it to understand what was happening.
Sometimes it’s hard to know whether you are being killed or saved by the hand of the one turning your life upside down. When you are on your back being turned every which way but loose, you don’t know whether God is doing you in or delivering you. When He puts you to lie there, you don’t know which way is up, and you are lying flat on your back. Guess what, sometimes God makes us to lie down. God will take the credit for putting us on our backs to fix whatever is wrong and make us totally anemic within ourselves. He will put us in a place where there’s only room for one God.988
[God’s Discipline]
Ps. 23:2; Heb. 12:11
WHY do you iron your shirts? You iron because you want to get the wrinkles out of it. In order for the iron to get wrinkles out, it has to be hot. A “fiery trial” has to be applied to that particular piece of clothing. You want the clothes to be wrinkle-free because you are going to wear them and wearing wrinkles won’t make you look good.
Jesus Christ is within you. He is inside of you and cloaked by you. But we have wrinkles on us that don’t reflect well on Him, so God has to iron them out, which requires fire.
He must address the wrinkles and He does it by using trials. Now, if you insist on wearing a wrinkled life, covering Jesus Christ, thus making Him look bad, then evidently the fire is not hot enough. Since God’s purpose is to conform you and me to the image of Christ, He will make that iron as hot as necessary, and keep it on the wrinkle for as long as necessary, until what we look like on the outside conforms to the life of Christ at work on the inside. Let patience have its perfect work.989
James 1:2–4
WHEN eagles want to get their eaglets to the next level, they stir the nest. Eagles put broken twigs in the nest, so that as the babies begin to grow, and rest on them, they become a little irritated. Then the eagles stir the nest and put grassy stuff underneath, bringing the needling to the top, so that when the eaglets try to sit down, after awhile, they can’t take being stuck anymore.
When it can’t take being stuck anymore, it begins to fly. The eagle knows this eaglet will never move to the next level of height, unless its surroundings are irritated. Only after being irritated does the eaglet make use of its wings. Only after being irritated does an eaglet that was stuck on the ground level begin to soar through the sky.
God wants you to soar through the sky. So sometimes, He’s got to stir the nest of your comfortability.990
[Brokenness, Importance of; Pain]
Prov. 1:32; Rev. 3:15–16
WE HAVE all taken pictures and sent them to the developer. The pictures are originally on the negatives, which aren’t really that great to look at. The pictures are small and not easy to see. So in order to get pictures that you can see, the developers have to take the negatives to the darkroom where they can be developed in secret.
When the pictures come back to you, they are larger and now in color. The final product looks nothing like the original image on the negative. In order to get to the final product, however, the negatives have to be taken to a darkroom where they are worked over by the man in the photo lab.
We can’t always see what God is doing. It may look like all we are getting is one negative after another. However, there is good news. God is working on the negatives in a darkroom, in secret where we can’t see. When it is the right time, He will bring them back in living color. We will see that He was up to something and working something out that we didn’t know about. He has a purpose for every trial that you face. He has a reason for your development in your trial.991
John 16:33
MOST ladies have, at some point and time, purchased cutlery. The finest cutlery, and the most expensive, are those that have taken the most time and patience to produce. The process of producing this expensive cutlery is called tempering. It is where steel is heated to red-hot and then hammered into shape. Sparks fly everywhere when they start hammering it. Then the knives are put into water to cool it down. This process of heating and cooling is repeated over and over again. The finest cutlery is the steel that has been tempered the most.
This is what God does for us. He puts us in the furnace of a trial, hammers on you, and then He cools you off. Then just when you’re getting comfortable being cooled, He lifts you out, puts you in the fire, hammers you some more, then He cools you off. That’s why you’ll always notice in the midst of a trial, God will periodically give you good days.
We get frustrated because the good days don’t last long. We wonder why our trials can’t be over. It is because we are not fully tempered. God wants us to be fine cutlery, not cheap knives. He wants us to be finely tuned.992
[Trials, Endurance during]
2 Cor. 4:7–18; 1 Peter 1:6–7
A DOCTOR has a knife. When a doctor makes an incision, you bleed. A mugger has a knife. If he cuts you and hurts you, you bleed. Is there a difference between the doctor’s knife and the mugger’s knife since both do the same thing? Both cut you. With either you are hurt and you bleed. Is a mugger and doctor the same? Of course not. Even though they do the same thing, it’s not the same. The difference between a doctor’s knife and a mugger’s knife is intent.
The doctor’s intent in cutting you is to fix something that’s wrong to make you stronger. The mugger’s intent in cutting you is to break something to make you weaker. They both do the same thing but their intent is different.
Satan’s intent is to destroy. Satan’s intent is to disable. Satan’s intent is to subjugate. God’s intent, even if He has to cut you and let you bleed, is always to set you free. You can thank God that when you’re cut, it’s designed to heal you.993
James 1:2–4
TENDERIZING meat can be done in a number of ways. Sometimes, you can sprinkle some tenderizing powder on it and let the meat sit and soften. Sometimes, meat must be tenderized the hard way. It has to be hit over and over with a mallet! BAM!!!
Trials work in the same way. They are designed to soften us and make us more pliable in the hands of God. Sometimes they are long and slow and we just have to sit and wait for change to occur. Sometimes, trials are hard and tumultuous and we must respond quickly to God’s prodding in our lives.994