Unless you belong to a local church that is poor and mistaken in its teaching you will know that Christian’s do not go through life unscathed, nor does God suggest they will or should. Sooner or later our faith will be tested.
What does it mean for faith to be tested? Well, put simply, a test of faith means faith is put under some pressure. The pressures are so varied that it is impossible to enumerate them all. Broadly, they fall into two categories; faith is put under pressure by life’s allurements and/or life’s anxieties. Jesus describes God’s word like a seed planted in the garden soil of our souls. He reminds us that this seed gets attacked by the thorns and thistles that (as in any garden) so prolifically grow. He identifies the thorns and thistles (the weeds that choke the seed) like this
Luke 8:14 (ESV) And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.
Riches and pleasures have the potential to put God’s work in our hearts under pressure. Of course, as Christians it is easy to be blasé about the danger of riches and pleasures, yet, if we allow, they will draw our hearts away from the life of faith and seduce us into abandoning faith altogether. We need to be vigilant. We must ‘weed’ our souls. And we must realise that the good things of life may destroy us if they are not carefully monitored and controlled. I would like to say more about this, but life’s seductions are not my intended focus in this blog.
Rather my focus is life’s concerns. I wish to draw attention to faith under pressure because of the cares of life or the anxieties of life; the events of life that surprise, shock and even stumble us.
I know a number of people under such pressure just now.
In the NT, persecution put faith under pressure. And no wonder. It is difficult to live day in and day out with personal abuse. All the more so when you know that to stop the abuse you simply need to give up your faith. And, why does the Lord, if he is real and is reigning, not deliver from persecution? Persecution puts faith under a powerful pressure. Pressure we may ask to do what? Pressure to give up*. To turn back. To recant. To quietly bow out of the race.
However, most people I personally know do not face persecution (and praise God they don’t). Yet many do face real difficulties, even dangers, that may debilitate faith. Some live with chronic and crippling ill-health. Some have jobs that are in jeopardy and the indecision and uncertainty involved in waiting is agonizing. Some have lost jobs and feel the dislocation and disorientation of this. Some live with difficult and very unhappy marriages. Some have friends, relatives or spouses who claim to be believers but act in ways that are contradict faith and so shake the faith of those nearest to them. Some feel badly let down by those they looked up to and followed. Sometimes the behaviour of others in church puts faith under pressure. If those who ought to love and support and gently rebuke if we need instead attack, abuse or avoid us then our faith is tested. The hostility of other Christians erodes faith. The bitterness, duplicity, even malice of those who profess to love is corrosive. Some are crushed by their own failures and not that of others.
Any of these tests faith. Each may produce anxiety. Each is capable of suggesting to our minds that the faith we believe is mistaken, misguided, a myth. We feel that to throw it all over would be a relief, a release. Opting out of the fight is so attractive. And if some of our friends have already done so it is just that bit easier for us to contemplate doing the same.
What is happening? Our faith is under trial. Our faith is being tested. We are in the very situation the Bible regularly warned us we would be. Our faith is in the crucible. How will we react?
In a future blog we will look at how to strengthen faith under such trial. In the meantime I leave you with Peter’s words.
1Pet 1:3-7 (ESV) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith-more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire-may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
* We will see in a future blog that God’s purpose in the trial is not to bring about our defeat but it is undoubtedly Satan’s.
When our faith is being tried we need His grace. Thank God that we can come boldly to the throne of grace and ask for grace in the time of need. Good post and God bless.