TRIALS, TESTINGS, and TEMPTATIONS

By Danna Shirley

Message given at Charismatic Service March 17, 1996 at Hario Chapel in Japan.

Trials and Testings – why do they come?

1.      To produce a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart. (Psalm 51:17)

2.      To conform us to the image of His Son; to develop character. (Romans 8:29)

Some Trials and Testings:

1.      Humiliation—break pride and self-preservation.

2.      Misunderstandings—allow God to vindicate us.

3.      Dry places—seek God out; we can’t make it without Him.

4.      Fear—of the unknown.

5.      Judgment, criticism, gossip—what goes around comes around.

6.      Waiting on Him—no matter how long.

God doesn’t place us in these experiences to punish us. They are for our benefit that we may grow up into the image of Christ to become a mature man.

A two-fold benefit is that what we learn through Trials and Testings, they can be turned around for good to comfort others. (2 Cor 1:3-7; Romans 8:28)

We can react three ways to Trials and Testings:

1.      Resistant, unmoveable, unteachable, which leads to a longer time in our trial OR is repeated often until learned.

2.      Yield to the trial and just find ourselves enduring it with complaint and resentment toward God. We get no learning from it and nothing is accomplished. We pout to God like the boy in the corner, sitting down on the outside but standing up on the inside.

3.      Surrender—body, soul, spirit. Allow ourselves to be broken before the Lord; pliable, moldable, shapeable into the Lord’s fashion; to be made into His vessel and into the image of Christ and not our own! This is when we are truly pleasing God.

Our greatest example of yieldedness, brokenness, and surrender is in Christ Himself. He yielded to the Father’s will and surrendered to the cross. He counted the cost and was willing to pay the price. Whatever trial or testing we may ever go through cannot compare to the cross.

Paul wrote:  “Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches.” (2 Cor 11:23-28)

Paul saw God’s bigger picture—looking beyond himself and his own trials and testings. “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil 4:11-13)

Temptations – “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various temptations; knowing this, that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” (James 1:2-4) We will have them until we die!

“Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God;’ for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” (James 1:13-15)

            (Tempted=to entangle a person to sin, doing contrary to God’s will.)

How do we surrender ourselves through trials; yield ourselves through adverse circumstances; be broken to come to a perfect and complete man, lacking nothing?

The answer:

See God as the One Who leads us for our benefit! He may use the enemy or other people to accomplish His purposes but we should always depend on the Holy Spirit to guide and direct our lives, our thinking, and our reactions.

“Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.” (1 Peter 4:19)

“But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 5:10-11)