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Faith's Trial
Scripture is full of this idea of the trial of one's faith. Take the 11th
Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews.... Every one of those men was tried.
They had been given great promises and they had accepted them, and then everything seemed to go wrong.... Think of the trial of a man like Noah . .. of . . . Abraham, the trials that men like Jacob and especially Moses had
to endure. God gives the gift of faith and then the faith is tried....That is the theme of all the Scriptures. You find it in the history of the
Patriarchs and of all the Old Testament saints, you find it running through
the New Testament....
We must start by understanding that we may well find ourselves in a position
in which our faith is going to be tried. Storms and trials are allowed by
God. If we are living the Christian life, or trying to . . . on the assumption that it means just come to Christ and you will never have any
more worry in the whole of your life, we are harbouring a terrible fallacy.... Our faith will be tried, and James goes so far as to say,
'Count if all joy when ye fall into divers temptations (trials)' (James 1:2). God permits storms, He permits difficulties. He permits the wind to
blow and the billows to roll, and everything may seem to be going wrong and
we ourselves to be in jeopardy. We must learn and realize that God does not
take His people and lead them into some kind of Elysium in which they are protected from all 'slings and arrows of outrageous fortune'. Not at all,
we are living in the same world as everybody else. Indeed, the Apostle Paul
seems to go further than that. He tells the Philippians, '. . . unto you it
is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake' (Philippians 1:29). 'In the world,' says our Lord, 'ye
shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). 'Be of good cheer' -- yes, but remember that you will have
tribulation."
"A First Book of Daily Readings"
Martyn Lloyd-Jones from "Spiritual Depression"
Meditations Index
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