The Value of Trials

God uses trials to show us our insufficiencies and failures.
They are His way of building character through spiritual excavation.
We never know what graces and qualities we possess until a trial uncovers them.
Then the faith and courage that seemed to stand as such pillars of enthusiasm waver,
and the soul collapses in helplessness upon Christ alone.

Jacob’s trials brought him to the end of self.
Job’s afflictions destroyed his self-righteous confidence.
Peter’s fall broke his self-sufficiency and forced him to lean upon his Lord and find strength in Him alone.
Trials gain great value as they become stepping stones to heavenly blessings.

Trials Teach Us:

1. God’s Resources
Trials help us discover the resources of God.
We learn about His all-sufficiency in difficult circumstances.
After their wilderness experience, God told Israel He exposed them to an environment with no natural provisions,
to teach them that He was adequate for every need,
and that

“man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God”
(Mt. 4:4).

Trials Make Christ Real
The more God meets our needs, the more He becomes real to us.
Every difficult situation is just another occasion for Him to show Himself in His infinite wisdom, power, and grace.
Paul tells us he was exposed to every sort of difficulty so that the power of Christ might rest upon him according to his needs.
Each new trial was an opportunity for Christ to tell him,

“My grace is sufficient for you”
(2 Cor. 12:7-10).
Are we finding Him equal to the trials of our lives?

“It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me”
(Gal. 2:20)

2. Faith
Trials test our faith and develop trust.

“Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ”
(2 Tim. 2:3).

Difficulties are divine incentives which strengthen our confidence in God.
The eagle teaches her young to fly by tearing up her nest and hurling them into mid-air,
where they must either fly or fall.
It is then they quickly learn the undeveloped power in their little wings,
and find the secret of a new life on the wind and in the face of the sun.

Similarly, God stirs up our nests, takes away our props, and flings us into an abyss of helplessness,
where we must either fall or learn to trust that God is there beneath us.
It is so easy for us to lean upon what we see rather than walk by faith.

3. Prayer Dependence
Trials teach us to get alone with God.
They drove Jacob to his knees at the fords of Jabbok
(Gen. 32:23-30),
taught the Psalmist to find “the secret place of the Most High”
(Ps. 91:1),
and made Paul’s life one of ceaseless dependence upon the Lord
(Phil. 4:13).

Ease and comfort lead to independence; suffering draws us to God.
The times nearest to God are when we say,

“You have known my soul in adversities”
(Ps. 31:7).

4. Love
When God wants to teach us love, He sometimes lets ill-treatment, injustice, and even severe wrongs drive us to Him,
for the love that

“bears all things, endures all things”
(1 Cor. 13:7).

First, we find we do not have love adequate for the test.
Then, as we learn this humbling lesson, God leads us on in deeper testing
until we can thank Him for the fire that revealed His grace and overcoming love.

5. Patience
In God’s school, we learn to endure.
Patience is the crowning grace of the Christian life.
When patience has its perfect work, then we become

“perfect and complete, lacking nothing”
(Jas. 1:4).

This lesson is often learned in suffering.
Trials take away fear of suffering and pain,
as we experience God’s sustaining grace.
We put on His strength and courage, rising above fear,
and welcome conflict and victory as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

Trials Outfit Us to Help Others

We are called to be living epistles of Christ to men
(2 Cor. 3:3),
showing by example that Christ keeps His own in every situation,
and that His grace is practical and adaptable to every human need.

Trials prepare us to help others by lessons learned in each experience
(2 Cor. 1:3-4).
The insensitive heart cannot comfort a suffering world.
God must burn in us first what He wants to give out.
A painful experience qualifies us to comfort and strengthen others, saying,

“I have been there, and I can tell you from my own experience that ‘my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus’”
(Phil. 4:19).

Trials are Occasions for Victory

Trials become occasions for eternal rewards—crowns that never fade.
When history is forgotten and time’s records wiped out,
the eternal results of trials will shine in our lives as we share in God’s new heavens and new earth.

Are we learning from our sorrows?
To win a crown?
To get from trials all that Christ has for us?
Will we be