Kingdom Faith – Part 1: Faith beyond the trial

1 Cor. 10:13 teaches us that tests are under God’s control. God brings tests into our lives to awaken our dormant faith or strengthen our faith. Faith is proven in the midst of challenges. James tells us that faith without action is dead. James. 2:18-23. What sort of action does faith require?

James 1:12-17 shows us that there is a difference between tests and temptations. The difference seems to be whether the trial results from bad decisions or from circumstances beyond our control, but within God’s control. The difference, in essence, is whether the will that got us into the mess is ours or God’s.

When I was attended a local Bible College I was eating lunch in the cafeteria with some classmates, among whom were two young people who were engaged. She told us she wanted to be a missionary in some of the poorest Asian countries. He wanted to be the pastor of a large (presumably wealthy, though he did not say that out loud) church in California. Neither understood that nothing but heartache would follow if they went ahead with their marriage. Somebody’s career dream would be untenable and bitterness would be sure to follow. Another three couples I know (not from the Bible College) were so obviously incompatible that nothing but disaster could happen if they married. And it did. In another case the groom came to the wedding completely intoxicated – definitely not a good sign.

I cringed when I met a relative’s first and second wives. (Because of distance I met the first one after their wedding, far too late to say anything.) I tried to warn him that the next one would be difficult to live with. After his second divorce he told me he should have listened to me when I had taken him aside and suggested that it probably wouldn’t work out.

I know a man who complains that God is not living up to his promise of providing spiritual family or financial security when he moved to an isolated community because of rumors that it would become prosperous through development of local resources. He bought a house there and planned to sell it at a profit within a few short years. Years later, he feels isolated from his friends and trapped in a house he can’t sell because the development hasn’t come about as hoped. He is still working hard trying to plan his way out of the situation.

Is God responsible for his isolation? Is God responsible for his inability to sell the house?

Our own strength is the greatest source of our weakness. No sooner did Peter boast about his ability to stay the course did he cave in and deny Jesus. Only when we deal with the delusion of our competence can we learn to rely on God and his power alone.

According to Dr. Myles Munroe, “our ability to discern the source of the tests is critical to our ability to live successfully beyond the tests. Self-induced tests will tear us down while the tests God allows builds us up and strengthens our faith – if we allow them to.”

Before identifying a challenge or difficulty as a test from God, we should examine ourselves to make sure we haven’t created the problem ourselves due to wrong behavior or lack of wisdom. In such a case, confession and repentance is the proper course of action. Unlike Dr. Myles, I believe that even self-induced trials can be redeemed if we will learn to rely on God to move through them in faith.

Kingdom faith is strengthened by conviction in the power of God, not in his works. In other words, do we need to see God regularly doing something wonderful in our lives or those close to us?

We need to really, deeply understand that God has the power – and the right – to do anything. He has the right to act in ways that we do not expect. He even has the power and the right to overrule our wishes and desires about anything in our lives. He has the power to do and the power not to do.

Notice that Jesus always refused to perform a sign to “prove” who he was because such a demand revealed that true faith was not present. We find examples of this in Mark 8:12, John 6:30 and Matt. 13:58.

Faith is rightly placed in God himself, because only he has the ability and the power to work all things out for the benefit of all of His creation. In other words, it is not just for us as individuals, but also for everyone and everything else. Our job is to trust in the God who makes and keeps promises.

Kingdom faith believes even in the midst of God’s silence. According to Paul in Rom. 4:16-25, Abraham was 75 years old when he was promised a son. Would we have waited 25 years?  Moses was 40 years old when he understood that God wanted to use him to free the Israelites. Would we have answered the call 40 years later as he did? Would we have led Israel through the wilderness for 40 years, and finish well even after we were told that we would not enter?

The Revised Standard Version translates Rom. 8:28-37 differently from most versions in an important way that clarifies what God can accomplish in our trials. Verse 28 states, “We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.” God has a much wider overall vision of the “good” that He works “with” those who love Him. The “good” is not merely for the afflicted person, but rather includes a “good” shared with many others in the long run. In other words, God works with the person undergoing the trial for (i.e: in order to produce) the greater good.

God promised that Abraham’s “seed,” Jesus, will bless all the nations. Jesus came, not to condemn the world, but to save it (John 3:17). Can we see that our trials are a part of the outworking of that promise of bringing blessing to the world around us? Can we see our trials as a part being “predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:29)

What if things are falling apart? What if you lose your job? What if office politics deny you the promotion you deserve? Or what if your house burns down, or your child dies of disease or accident? Can you keep faith in God no matter what?

What if you expect blessing, but disaster comes your way? We need faith that is bigger than our expectations in this world.

So, to answer the question posed at the beginning: what action does faith require?

If the trial is one over which we have no control: trust that Jesus and his Father will work it out as we endure it.

In the case of trials caused by our own wrong or unwise impulses: confession, repentence, a willingness to learn and grow, and endurance.

In both cases we need faith that God will somehow, no matter how impossible it seems, work it out for the eternal good of ourselves and the whole world. He promised, and He chose each of us to work with Him to accomplish it, even with our trials. God is much, much bigger than time, space and this world.

We need faith in the love, the promise and the “bigness” of God to endure and overcome the trials.