None of us want to go through trials or want to be tested by the Lord, but the truth is if you live long enough, which I am sure you have since your reading this article, you have been tested by the Lord, you have been through some level of trials or hardship or experience some level of pain at some time in your life. It is a part of life, and guess what? It is not only Christians go through hardship and experience some level of pain, non-Christians also are tested and put through trials, even if they do not believe in God or even know that there is someone name Jesus. It is just a part of life.
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But why is it the Lord will choose to test you or put you through trials? That’s the big question on the lips of a lot of many people, especially in a culture that do not believe they should go through anything. Why the Lord allows suffering, pain, hardship especially when you know he has the power to prevent it? But again what would life be like without trials, pain, moments of heartache?
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Here are 6 reasons why the Lord allows trials and put us through trials
- To refine us. God said of the Children of Israel that he will put them in the fire so that he may “refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested…”- Zachariah 13:9 (ESV). To get us to the place where God wants us to be he will put us in the fire of affliction, persecution and different things happening in our lives most of which we may not understand so that he may refine or transform us into the person he wants us to be. What the fire does to silver and gold is to remove all the impurities or any unwanted substance so that it may come out as pure silver or gold. When we give our lives to God we unrefined, the flesh or the old sinful nature is still operating or controlling our lives so to get us to walk in the Spirit or to have a renew mind he applies pressure. For example he will put you through hunger and financial problems so that you may learn to trust him and seek him more, or he may want to get you to the place where material things are not your gods. He may allow people to talk bad about you so that he may get you at the place where your not easily offended by the words and deeds of others.
- To Prove to Satan and the world that we are a child of God. Peter in one of his letters to the saints that where suffering persecution, he wrote to them to tell that the trials and testing they are undergoing is to prove to the world that they are genuine Christians (1 Peter 1:7) and to also see what they are made of. By their endurance people will come to know and may even serve the God they serve. Remember the story of Job? Satan accused Job of only serving God because he put a hedge of protection around him and everything concerning him, and not only that God blessed everything he had and do- he was a very wealthy man.
This was the beginning of trials in Job’s life as the Lord allows Satan to tried Job. The trials you face is to prove to the enemy that you’re the real deal, if you are a true servant of God or not and if your mind is made up to serve him. While we are going through our trials, we may not have joy now or want to even dance, but after this, after the pain, after you come out of the situation you may be in now you will have joy, you will have victory and you will dance, after this you will be restore, stronger, confirmed and establish (1 Peter 5:10).
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You may now ask the question, If God knows everything and he knows our heart, doesn’t he already know whether or not our faith is genuine?
That I will readily agree is a very good question. It is not so much about him knowing, but it is about you knowing where you stand, how weak you are in some areas or how strong you are. What are the things that will cause you to fail and what you can easily overcome. Please keep in mind, if we have a weak faith, then when trials come this will be shown. If our faith is weak, it may not be obvious when life is going smoothly and we aren’t challenged in any way. Therefore God doesn’t test us because he wants to know how strong we are, but he test us so that we will know how strong we are and what areas we need to work on. Do you need to have more faith when hard times comes? Do you have an angry problem that you need to deal with? Are you a patient person? These things will be reveal when your tested.\
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- God may want to bless you. Job was a very wealthy man, but he was also a man that feared God as he served God faithfully. Job was satisfied with all that he had accomplished, he had a beautiful wife and children, and he had a striving business, what else could any man want? But God was not satisfied, he wanted Job to have more, he wanted to give Job a double portion of blessing. So he allowed the enemy to test Job (Job 1:6-22). Many times we are going through somethings is because God wants to bless us but to do that we must go through some trials, we must be tested. The trials we go through are not to destroy you, but they are to elevate you. It may not be that the Lord wants to bless you materially, but he may want to promote you at your job, in ministry or any other form of exaltation. When you endure the hardship, then you will fully understand what the Lord was doing and you will have joy. It may be rough now but glory comes after the pain. After the pain you will bear fruit, you will be bless, you will be promoted.
- God will test you and put you through trials so that you may know him more. Job knew Job, he had a relationship with him, but when Job came out of his months of suffering, when God delivered him he testified that his trials and all that he been through allowed him to know God at a deeper level. He developed a much closer relationship with God because of all he had to endured. If Job was not tested he could not have said “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.”- Job 42:5 (NIV)
- To help you to grow. Think about it, the bad experiences you had, haven’t they helped you to be a better person, to be more mature, to understand yourself and life more? Whether it may be that for a moment you could not pay your bills and properly feed yourself and so had to rethink how you spend your money and find creative ways to buy goods, and earn more money. The truth is your experiences help you to grow.
However, the sad truth is that many of us have allowed our experiences, our test and trials to break us, to make us bitter, to give up on life instead of making us stronger and better. The Bible says “that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”- Romans 8:28.
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If you are going through something right now, if your being tested, if you are going through some trials right then you need to allow the Lord to do what he wants to do in your life. God didn’t say we will only have good experiences in this life, we are not in heaven as yet, therefore we have to ensure our seat belt are fasten properly and continue on the straight and narrow path. It may be rough at times, but in the end you will have joy, you will be stronger and much better, you will know him more, you will come out more anointed, you may even give births to new gifts and talents that you didn’t know you have, or new ministry, that’s a promise. At times you will not understand why your going through some of the things your facing, but you should understand this, it is for your good. For example, I am sure when you were going to school you never understood why you had to learn some of the things that were taught to you, I am sure you wanted to skip some classes, maybe even skip school all together. But I am sure that those lessons have had some positive impact on your life today or sometime in the past. Question, did those lessons destroy you? Some of the task that were given to you though hard at times, did they destroy you? No they didn’t.
The same is true for the trials you are facing or will face. My advice to you is to go through it. Don’t stop half-way but go all the way
How will I know when the Lord is testing me?
The truth is you will not always know when your being tested by the Lord. Job didn’t know that what he was going through was a test until he came out of it. He didn’t know there was conversation about him taking place in the spiritual realm that he wasn’t invited to, but he went through it until he came out of it. Though it was hard he never last his integrity, he never sinned against God or made accusations about him.
The Lord will not always tell us when we are tested, but when he is testing us he will give us the strength to past the test. And guess what? He will never test you beyond what you are able to bear or to endure (1 Corinthians 10:13).
My advice to you is to regard everything as a test. Every trial, every time someone does or say something to you that they shouldn’t or try to get you upset or to respond in a negative way. This way you will not react your normal way. If are not able to pay your bills and you would normal start complaining, cursing, being depress. Next time around start thinking positively, start prophesying victory over your life that the Lord will deliver you. Try to have faith in God. Having and maintaining faith in God in times of trials will not always be easy and for some of us faith doesn’t come very easy, but you have to start training yourself to have faith if you want to live in victory each day.
You will not always know but one way you can know when your faith is being tested is when something happens that should cause you to let go of God, give up on life or your dreams, curse God, or stop believing in God. For example your spouse just got killed in a car accident. You can’t understand why the Lord would allow this to happen when your spouse has been faithfully serving God for most of his life.
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“This what I am going through my be rough but I am going to trust God. I know he will take me through it. I know he will deliver me”
“I may not have the money to pay my bills right now, but knows a way and he will make a way for me. And even if he doesn’t make a way he is still good.”
None of us like to be tested, but God doesn’t allow them because he wants to destroy us or give us a bad day, no everything he does is for a reason. Past the test no matter how small they may be, go through your trials and come out victorious.
If this article have spoken to you in some way, please let me know by leaving a comment. What else could you add to this article? I don’t mind if you would share it with our readers.
Responses
I did not see # 6 please if you missed it copy it so we may read it this is very intriguing thank you
May The Lord Almighty bless everyone who read this article and has high hopes.
Thank you author for blessing us with this article, God bless you and your family.
We may not have everything we want but we have everything we need in Our Lord, Jesus Christ.
AMEN-NNNNNNNNN
Thank you! God had spoken to me through your article. God bless you more!
I have been having doubts. My family believes in God and so do I, but I think I’m depressed. I don’t know if I love god as much, and I’m confused. I don’t know if I love him or believe just because I want to go to heaven. This has been going on for about 1 1/2 weeks. Does this sound like a test? And what can help.
If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, ie a born again Christian, this could be God’s way of drawing you into a deeper relationship with Himself, and that’s not something to be afraid of. God rarely (if ever!) just lets us continue in our status quo, and if you are His child then He is deeply interested in your development. Being a Christian isn’t just about going to heaven when we die, although God is so gracious and gives us that amazing gift too. It’s about getting to know God in the here and now (and being transformed to be like His Son Jesus (Romans 8v28-29). Jesus said that knowing God is what eternal life is all about (John 17v3) and it’s something that starts the moment we put our trust in Jesus. The important thing to do during trials is to keep your focus on God, continue to trust Him and dig deeper into His Word. If He highlights to you sometime He wants you to do then do it, and pray to Him and praise Him even when you don’t feel like it. We show our love to God by obeying whatever He asks us to do (even when we don’t understand it there and then and even if it seems real tough!), and that’s how we get closer to Him and get to know Him better (John 14v21-23). There’s a little song that says: ‘Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, than to trust and obey.’ It’s simple but it’s true. I’m going through a trial at the moment and I’ve no idea why I’m being put through it or indeed what God hopes to bring out of it, but I know that He knows what He’s doing. God bless you dear Hal, and you just keep your eyes fixed on Him and your ears open to what He wants to teach you :).
Amen. Powerful words that I really needed to hear Angela. You have reminded me that my trust in God and His Son and my Saviour Jesus must be consistent . I must give Him all my cares and trust everything that I am going through to be for the good and I must praise Him and grow form m trials, I must be grateful for where they take me. Thank you.
Thanks for the words of encouragement, Angela! As a believer. a woman of God who shares the Good News and the words of her testimony on a daily basis, I was recently in a car accident that left me immobile with a broken foot, the loss of majority of my income, many bills/broken promises, not to mention the exposing of those who you thought had your back. Just when I thought things were finally looking up, seeing the manifestation of long awaited blessings, BAM! Every area of my life came under attack! I know that I’m being refined through these tests, and my Father is near and has something great, even spectacular waiting for me when this is over. Yet, there are times I have to be reminded; and I thank you! God Bless…
I am being tested today. God is allowing people in my life that I wish could stay away from me. I really don’t know how to handle this. He has been faithful to me and proven His love for me however, how am I supposed to live with this person so close to me physically and as a relative?
I am going through a rough patch at the moment and the recent light of events in my life has caused to distance myself from God . I was quite spiritual from a very young age and have always had a personal relationship with God but past few years has been the most horrible years of my life. God did save me and gave me an opportunity to start over but everything that I worked super hard for be it my relationship or job was taken away from me and all my hardwork turned invain . I’m crawling back to Him but I can feel that this is my testing phase and I get too upset sometimes with everything and end up complaining . I love God deeply and I don’t want to let go just because of one horrible phase , I’m doing my best to stop complaining and I really hope my faith gets stronger when I make it to the other side..
We all go through many trials and in that we look for someone to stand with us, but no one, God let us go throgh this to trust him and relay upon him
I am just reading this…and it’ been over a year since you wrote this and I pray that all is “well” with you in Jesus name and that your faith is stronger then ever in Jesus name… been there before… but I won’t let go of his hands..
This is exactly what i was looking for! My sister is going through some trials, and she has starting questioning God. She seems to be losing hope, and doubting in our God. But this will help her for sure! God Bless!
Man, in 2005 I had a woman and we split up and I said to my self I’ll find another 1 just like I always have, but then I heard a voice saying not any more, so let me tell you after that I’ve had the worst life everything has been upside down mainly I’ve been fighting joblessness for 12 years and it’s not because I’m lazy I work hard and look for work every day even when I’m working because I do shutdowns and they only last from 1 day to 5 years, and they can fire you for anything, anyway I was wonderful if you have ever seen such a thing? They always say if the devil isn’t attacking you you’re not living for god what’s weird is I don’t live for god yet I’m being attacked like I am…
I didn’t see #6
I think #6 is How to know when the Lord is testing me
I believe # 6 went into speaking about the lord testing you i think
You are definitely in touch and a true believer. I am being refined to be faithful to one woman only, to appreciate her also to be able to make sure my money is spent at the correct places. Thanks so much for writing this!