We Must Believe God Loves Us In Spite of the Fact that He Does Not Make Our Lives Go Better – Part 2

04 Jul We Must Believe God Loves Us In Spite of the Fact that He Does Not Make Our Lives Go Better – Part 2

Blog Series

Moving from Checkers to Chess

Five Steps to Unleashing the Power of an Eternal Perspective

3.  God uses trials in our lives to forge in us vast and valuable eternal blessings

There are five fundamental truths in Scripture that can ground us in hope when we face trials.

First, focus on God’s love for you

• “We are born for love. It is the principle of existence and its only end.” Benjamin Disraeli
• Psalm 103:13 says, “Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our form; He is mindful that we are but dust.”
• We must embrace and nurture the reality of God’s love.

Second, give up on this world and live for the next.

• Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote, “The only way to survive in the gulag is to give up on this world and live for the next.” In reality, the same is true for anyone who wants to enter into the fullness of the life God calls us to. As long as we hold out hope for this world to give us the purpose and meaning we long for, we will fall short of our intended spiritual destiny.
• Colossians 3:1-3 says, “Therefore if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
• The kinder this world is to us, the harder this is to do. The harder this world is on us, the more likely it is that we will do so.

Third, be willing for the trial to last as long as God chooses.

• In her book, Grit, Angela Duckworth identified one characteristic as the primary predictor of success. It wasn’t social intelligence, it wasn’t good looks, it wasn’t physical health, and it wasn’t IQ. It was “grit!”
• She defined grit as “passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina; grit is sticking with your future, day in day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
• 1 Corinthians 15:58 says, “Be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

Fourth, focus on the four primary benefits of trials.

• Spiritual transformation

James 1:2 – 4 says, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

“The road to transformation always goes through the tunnel of trials.”

Just as greater physical exercise results in greater physical strength, so greater spiritual exercise can result in greater spiritual strength.

A positive response to trials yields the priceless benefit of spiritual transformation!

• Greater impact in ministry

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble, with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”

No trial need ever be wasted! Not only will God use it to transform us, but if we let Him, He will also use it to work through us to help others.

• Eternal reward

Romans 8:18 says, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

God gives us disproportionate eternal reward for every single response of faith and obedience. We cannot even give someone a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name without receiving an eternal reward! (Matthew 10:42) As it relates to our faithfulness, we cannot out give God!

• Deeper fellowship with God

Philippians 3:10 says, “…that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering…”

Christ suffered for us more than we suffer for Him, yet He didn’t have to. Though we typically suffer because we have to, He voluntarily suffered for us because He loves us. When we grasp this, when we take this astonishing truth into our hearts, we develop deep appreciation and gratitude for what He has done in suffering and dying for us.

The Marines have a deeper mutual bond than any other branch of the armed forces.  Semper Fi is the battle cry and mutual greeting of Marines. Why? Because it’s harder to be a Marine than the other major services (not counting special forces…but even the special forces to not seem to have the camaraderie that the Marines have.)

In the same way, a bond of identity is forged with God through our mutual suffering, and we can enter into a level of fellowship with Him that we cannot know without suffering.

These are four potential benefits of trials. To help us cultivate inner joy and peace in the midst of trials, we must burn these four benefits into our minds.

But there is an additional thing we can do to help us cultivate joy and the ability to trust in God’s love in the face of trials and suffering.

4.  We can focus on the future to give us hope for the present.

Missionary Jim Elliott famously said, “He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep in order to gain that which he cannot lose.”

In the same way, he is no fool who is joyful in anticipation of future, disproportionate, permanent pleasure, in the face of temporary pain.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 says, “Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

This passage tells us that if we look at things that are temporal, we will lose heart. If we look at things that are eternal, we will be renewed.

By fixing our focus on the future, we can use future reality to help us endure present reality. Hope gives us power to endure!

Join me next week for the conclusion of Step 1 in our series on “Moving from Checkers to Chess ~ Five steps to unleashing the power of an eternal perspective,” as we look at Part 3 of We must believe God loves us in spite of the fact that He does not make our lives go better. I’ll see you then.

Get a Moving from Checkers to Chess At-a-Glance-Overview: Click Here

As we have been studying these concepts for quite some time (including in some prior blog series), I am excited to now be connecting all the “moving parts” from those posts and combining them into a “spiritual game plan” in this “Moving from Checkers to Chess ~ 5 Steps to Unleashing the Power of an Eternal Perspective” series.

For an overview of the game plan, so you can see at a glance where we begin and where we’re headed, I’ve created an overview/outline you can download for free: Click Here

For the full discussion of each of the steps, begin with the first post in this series, Moving from Checkers to Chess, and then continue with the following posts thereafter.

In case you’re new here, below are two resources I’ve created for additional help in your Christian discipleship journey:

Share this Blog