THE PURPOSE OF LIFE - DIFFICULTIES - OBSTACLES - TRIALS AND CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

It has been said that 90% of the trials and perplexities that so many worry over are either imaginary or brought upon themselves by their own wrong course of action. That's a stunning percentage. It suggests that human beings are mostly responsible for much of their own suffering. The bright side of this means that we can also do much towards our own relief from these things. Well what about the other 10% of the trials and perplexities that many worry over ? What is the source of these difficulties ? For those who are not in the habit of trusting God, praying to Him and relying upon Him for strength, the answer is unclear but for those live according to God's will, we know that our heavenly Father allows trials to come to us. He allows us to face setbacks, reversals and challenges as part of the life long process of Christlike character development. 

Many who sincerely consecrate their lives to God's service are surprised and disappointed to find themselves, as never before, confronted by obstacles and beset by trials and perplexities. They pray for Christlikeness of character, for a fitness for the Lord's work, and they are placed in circumstances that seem to call forth all the evil of their nature. Faults are revealed of which they did not even suspect the existence. Like Israel of old they question, "If God is leading us, why do all these things come upon us?"  

Many know very little of God's dealings with His people, but the most hopeless part of their experience is that they do not try to understand His dealings in these precious hours of probation. It is their privilege to know that His afflictions come for the object of purifying them from all evil. The Lord permits trials to come in order that we may look to Him as the source of our strength, and be cleansed from earthliness, from selfishness, from harshness, from sharp unchristlike traits of character. He suffers the deep waters of affliction to go over our souls in order that we may know Him and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent, in order that we may have deep heart‑longings to be cleansed from defilement, and to come forth from the trial purer, holier, and happier. We enter the furnace of trial with our souls darkened with selfishness, and if patient under the crucial test, we shall come forth reflecting the divine character. The Lord is able to deliver the godly out of temptation.

Stay tuned for the next post in this study..

1 Peter 1:7, 4:12,13/James 1:12/Revelation 3:18/2 Timothy 2:3/Romans 5:3/Mark 13:20,21/1 Peter 5:10

© 2013 Tyrone Keels

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