by Jacob Ninan
"Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;" (1Pet.4:2). We all go through experiences in life that cause us pain and suffering. Sometimes these can be 'fiery' too, referring to the intensity of our suffering. God is telling us that there is a purpose behind all these experiences, and that is to test us. Whenever we suffer, we are forced to make a choice, whether we will continue to trust in God and do what He tells us, or we will choose to do what people tell us or what we feel like. We realise that sin came into the world when man chose to please himself and become independent of God. Here God is giving us opportunities to make a choice for Him and to regain the ground we have lost through sinning.
In the ultimate analysis, all our trials are about our faith in God (1Tim.6:12). It is our faith that is under attack. God is watching us to see if we would choose Him and His word, even when Satan and the world are trying to pull us away from Him. We may have proclaimed in the past, for example when we went through our water baptism, that we want to live the rest of our life for God. Now is the opportunity to carry it through.
Sometimes when we go through difficult times, it is natural for us to wonder why we alone are going through these peculiar circumstances while other people seem to be having a good time! But God says that other people also face similar situations (1Cor.10:13). Even when we are being attacked by Satan or his demons, we must not forget that similar experiences are common with other children of God (1Pet.5:9). A part of overcoming is to deal with such thoughts of doubt in our mind and hold on to what God says.
When Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego stood facing immediate death in a fiery furnace, they knew that God was able to deliver them from that death, but they had no idea what He was actually going to do. But by faith they told King Nebuchadnezzar that even if they were going to get killed, they would not bow down before his statue. That is how we have to choose many times, even when we do not know how things are going to turn out!
Personal challenges
Some godly man has said that the biggest enemy we face is not the Devil or other people but ourselves. The old nature which is in our flesh is fighting against the Holy Spirit within us to compel us to give in to its lusts and desires (Gal.5:17). What the Holy Spirit is trying to do is to help us to overcome these temptations from our flesh and to choose the will of God. We must not pretend as if we have already overcome or the Holy Spirit has given us full victory (1Jn.1:8). That would be a very sad self-deception. The apostle Paul was honest enough to admit that many times he found himself doing things he hated to do (Rom.7:15). Some struggle with their temper, some others with impatience, irritability, sexual lusts, love of money, lust for honour, laziness, loose talk, inability to keep to time, addictions, etc.If we would be honest before God about such struggles and ask Him for forgiveness as well as help to overcome, He is there to save us. Instead, many people try to pretend, cover up, justify themselves, blame others or circumstances, etc., which will only block their spiritual progress. We must remember that we all have blind spots where others can see our faults, but we cannot! How thankful we must be for feedback people give us, even if it comes in the form of scolding, criticism, mocking or insults! If we receive them in the right way, that will help us to overcome.
People who are trials to us
People can be very different from us, they have their imperfections, the path of their spiritual growth may be on a different track at this moment, and many times they are totally ignorant about how their behaviour is hurting or irritating us. (We must remember, this may be the same way they are looking at us, because we too have our imperfections!) The only way we can continue to live peaceably with them and God is to forgive them (Col.3:13). When it looks very difficult for us to forgive some of them because we think they don't deserve it, we can remind ourselves how God has forgiven us, through grace (undeserved favour). Then it becomes possible to extend them also the same grace.When we have to live together, work together or deal frequently with certain people, merely forgiving them is not enough. What they do and their 'perculiar' behaviour keep hurting us and rubbing us the wrong way. That is where we have to learn to 'bear with' them. We can learn to accept them as they are, with all their weaknesses, and stop getting worked up about them. We can go on to praying for those who hurt us and even bless those who curse us (Lk.6:28)!
Troubled about God
We have a tendency to blame God for not answering our prayers, 'allowing' bad things to us instead of protecting us, and not helping us as we want as we try to do things. We don't realise that because of our very limiting finiteness compared to God's infiniteness it will never be possible for us to understand all that He is doing. We are usually thinking about some particular factors that concern us, while God is taking care of the bigger picture trhat looks at all factors. Just because we can't figure God out, we must not assume that He must be wrong! No. He is always right and He does only perfect things. If only we can accept the fact that there will always be things about God that we can's understand, and then decide to trust Him because of His character!Asaph, who has written a few psalms in the Bible was one day getting confused about why God was allowing some wicked people to prosper (Psa.73:2,3). Our sense of fair-play finds it very difficult to reconcile these facts, that while we who are trying to live godly lives are suffering, while wicked people enjoy many good things. Asaph got the answer that time is short for the wicked and that they would soon get what they deserve. Can we learn to live with the idea that while we can see only partly, God who has all things in view can be expected to do all things right.
Attacks from Satan
God warns us that we ought to protect ourselves from getting caught by our adversary, Satan (1Pet.5:8). Satan's aim is to misrepresent God to us and to lead us away from God. These days he seems to lead people towards demanding rights, acting out from a sense of entitlement thinking that the world owes them a life, considering own interests above those of others and even God's, ignoring God's instructions, etc. We have to watch out lest we allow ourselves to be influenced by these ideas. Jesus came to destroy the works of the Devil (1Jn.3:8). This will happen finally when Satan is cast into the lake of fire. But right now, the works of the Devil are to be destroyed in our lives.Many Christians make the mistake of ignoring Satan. But the New Testament has a lot of warnings for us about him. He has no considerations about our difficult situations, but makes use of the times when we are going through difficulties to mount his attacks of doubts in our mind. The only way to overcome him is through faith in God (1Pet.5:9). After putting on the whole armour of God, God tells us to pray–for ourselves and for our brothers and sisters who are going through trials (Eph.6:18).
Finally
God is at work in us, giving us directions, desires in the right direction and strengthening us to do His will. But then, only if we respond and work this out in the way we actually live, we will be able to partake more and more of salvation (Php.2:12,13).