Suffering That Strengthens Faith

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. (James 1:2–3)

Strange as it may seem, one of the primary purposes of being shaken by suffering is to make our faith more unshakable.

Faith is like muscle tissue: if you stress it to the limit, it gets stronger, not weaker. That’s what James means here. When your faith is threatened and tested and stretched to the breaking point, the result is greater capacity to endure. He calls it steadfastness.

God loves faith so much that he will test it to the breaking point so as to keep it pure and strong. For example, he did this to Paul according to 2 Corinthians 1:8–9,

We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.

The words “but that was to” show that there was a purpose in this extreme suffering: it was in order that — for the purpose that — Paul would not rely on himself and his resources, but on God — specifically the promised grace of God in raising the dead.

God so values our wholehearted faith that he will, graciously, if necessary, take away everything else in the world that we might be tempted to rely on — even life itself. His aim is that we grow deeper and stronger in our confidence that he himself will be all we need.

He wants us to be able to say with the psalmist, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25–26).

John Piper 

Bible Study

2 Corinthians 12:10

[10] For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Colossians 1:11

[11] being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy;

Matthew 5:12

[12] Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

1 Peter 1:6-7

[6] In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, [7] 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.

Are You Fully Dependent on God?

PRAY OVER THIS

“When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. Then He said to them, ‘Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.’”

Luke 22:45-46

 

PONDER THIS

God knows we need sleep, but there’s a time when sleep is inordinate. There are times in the morning when we don’t get out of bed in time to have a quiet time with the Lord. There are times when other pleasures come before the Lord Jesus Christ. And here is Peter asleep while Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Are you asleep at the wrong time? Do the things that break the heart of Jesus break yours? Can you sing sincerely, “The cross before me, the world behind me,” or do you yawn in the face of God? Jesus taught us to pray every morning, not only for daily bread but also for daily protection. Do you put on the armor of God every morning, saying, “Dear God, in the name of Jesus, protect me and keep me?”

Have you been boasting when you should be depending? Have you been sleeping when you should be praying? Do you know why we don’t pray? Many of us have a boastful spirit. If you knew you could not make it without the power of God in your life, you would begin every day in prayer. But if you don’t pray, your prayerlessness is not the worst part of it. Your prayerlessness is the indication of the pride that says, “I’m quite capable to handle this day by myself.” And so, you whisper a little prayer and off you go, but then spiritually fall flat on your face.

When was a time you felt totally dependent on God? What did you do?

How can you remind yourself of your need for God today?

PRACTICE THIS

Talk to a fellow Christian about what it means to be dependent on God and ways to keep each other accountable for spending time with Him.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

God’s Plan for Martyrs

They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. (Revelation 6:11)

For almost three hundred years, Christianity grew in soil that was wet with the blood of the martyrs.

Until the Emperor Trajan (about AD 98), persecution was permitted but not legal. From Trajan to Decius (about AD 250), persecution was legal. From Decius, who hated the Christians and feared their impact on his reforms, until the first edict of toleration in 311, the persecution was not only legal but widespread and general.

One writer described the situation in this third period:

Horror spread everywhere through the congregations; and the number of lapsi [the ones who renounced their faith when threatened] . . . was enormous. There was no lack, however, of such as remained firm, and suffered martyrdom rather than yielding; and, as the persecution grew wider and more intense, the enthusiasm of the Christians and their power of resistance grew stronger and stronger.

So, for three hundred years, to be a Christian was an act of immense risk to your life and possessions and family. It was a test of what you loved more. And at the extremity of that test was martyrdom.

And above that martyrdom was a sovereign God who said there is an appointed number of martyrs. They have a special role to play in planting and empowering the church. They have a special role to play in shutting the mouth of Satan, who constantly says that the people of God serve him only because life goes better. That’s the point of Job 1:9–11.

Martyrdom is not something accidental. It is not taking God off guard. It is not unexpected. And it is emphatically not a strategic defeat for the cause of Christ.

It may look like defeat. But it is part of a plan in heaven that no human strategist would ever conceive or could ever design. And this plan will triumph for all those who endure to the end by faith in God’s all-sufficient grace.

John Piper 

Bible Study

Hebrews 11:40

[40] since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

Genesis 15:16

[16] And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

Revelation 14:13

[13] And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”

Revelation 7:9-10

A Great Multitude from Every Nation

[9] After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, [10] and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Do You Ask God for Wisdom?

PRAY OVER THIS

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” James 1:5-8

 

PONDER THIS

When giving counsel, your job is not to solve problems. If you do that, people will become dependent on you. Ultimately, your job is to bring them to God—not to answer the why but to point to the who. In difficult times, God will give you this kind of wisdom if you’ll pray and ask. It is a mark of growth when we stop asking why and start remembering who.

One time, Joyce and I were on the beach in Hawaii. And I saw the most magnificent waves. I said, “Joyce, these are the biggest waves I think I’ve ever seen. I’m going to go out and do some body surfing.” So, I went out and waited for my wave. I started paddling to get on the front end, and that wave picked me up, shook me, body-slammed me to the bottom of the beach, and I just lay there. After a little while I was able to get up and when I turned around, there was a sign I’d not seen. It said, “No body surfing allowed; spinal injury may occur.” I walked right past that sign and never saw it or read it. But I learned something that day—you can’t trust a wave. And God won’t trust a Christian who’s like a wave of the sea. No, with a rock-like faith, you ask God for wisdom, and God will give it.

When was a time you asked God for wisdom? What happened?

When has doubt been damaging to your faith? How did you respond?

PRACTICE THIS

Take a matter you are wrestling with to God in prayer, asking for His wisdom.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Why We Don’t Lose Heart

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16–18)

Paul can’t see the way he used to (and there were no glasses). He can’t hear the way he used to (and there were no hearing aids). He doesn’t recover from beatings the way he used to (and there were no antibiotics). His strength, walking from town to town, doesn’t hold up the way it used to. He sees the wrinkles in his face and neck. His memory is not as good. And he admits that this is a threat to his faith and joy and courage.

But he does not lose heart. Why?

He doesn’t lose heart because his inner man is being renewed. How?

The renewing of his heart comes from something very strange: it comes from looking at what he can’t see.

We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)

This is Paul’s way of not losing heart: looking at what he cannot see. What, then, did he see when he looked?

A few verses later in 2 Corinthians 5:7, he says, “We walk by faith, not by sight.” This doesn’t mean that he leaps into the dark without evidence of what’s there. It means that for now the most precious and important realities in the world are beyond our physical senses.

We “look” at these unseen things through the gospel. We strengthen our hearts — we renew our courage — by fixing our gaze on the invisible, objective truth that we see in the testimony of those who saw Christ face to face.

“God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). “The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” We see this as it shines in our heart through the gospel.

We became Christians when this happened — whether we understood this or not. And with Paul we need to go on seeing with the eyes of the heart, so that we not lose heart.

John Piper