09 Jul Trials are Spiritual Exercise Machines
I heard the story once of an Olympic weightlifter who trained as hard as he could for four years for the Olympics, but still came in second. He knew he couldn’t train harder for the next Olympics – he had given it everything he had – and he was desperate to win the gold.
So, he hit on a new strategy. He decided that instead of burning up all that energy for four years lifting weights in training, he would go to bed for four years and save all that energy. Then, according to his theory, he would have four years of stored-up energy at his disposal. He would get out of bed, lift a record-breaking amount of weight, and ascend the gold medal stand.
So, when the fateful day came, he got out of bed on stork legs with a watermelon stomach and stick arms, wobbled to the gymnasium, grabbed the bar of weights, and pulled with all his might, but didn’t even budge the bar. His strategy didn’t work.
Strength for tomorrow only comes by being taken beyond our comfort zone today.
And so it is spiritually. We gain spiritual strength the same way we gain physical strength – by being taken beyond our comfort zone today so we can be stronger tomorrow.
Trials are Part of Life
Someone once said there are only three kinds of people:
- Those who are in the middle of a trial
- Those who have just come out of a trial
- Those who are going into a trial
It may not be exactly accurate, but it makes a point. Trials are part of life.
- Some trials are the result of cause/effect things we have done. Galatians 6:7 says, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; whatever a man sows that will he also reap.”
- Other trials may be the result of spiritual warfare. Ephesians 6:16 talks about the “flaming arrows” of the evil one, which he sends to defeat us in our walk with the Lord.
- Still other trials may be divine discipline which the Lord brings into our lives to correct our behavior. Hebrews 12:6 says, “those whom the Lord loves he disciplines.”
Trials Benefit Us in This Life
But some trials are for our spiritual growth… to change us from where we are to where the Lord wants us to be. 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, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Now of course, trials are difficult or they would not be trials. And no one in his right mind enjoys them. But if we have the right perspective on trials, it can help us endure them.
In a sense, trials are just spiritual exercise machines designed to complete us in some area of spiritual capacity. Looking at them that way does not make them any easier, but it does help us endure them, knowing that they are for our benefit, and in the end, we will be better off because of them. Our overall goal of greater fitness motivates us to endure the process of training.
Imagine that you join a fitness center. Then you go into the fitness center and start studying the exercise machines. You might even try them out. Then you say, “I don’t like this machine! It makes my legs hurt when I use it. And I don’t like that machine! It makes my stomach sore the next day. And I don’t like that machine over there either! I’m always exhausted after I use it. I can hardly function afterward. All these machines are stupid. Who wants them?!?”
Well, of course, that doesn’t make much sense. The whole reason you joined the fitness center was so that you could work out on those machines. It makes no sense to resent the machines. They are there to make you, physically, into the kind of person you want to become, and you cannot become physically strong in any other way. Our Olympic weightlifter already demonstrated that.
No, the sensible way to look at exercise machines at a fitness center is to say to yourself, “Well this machine is hard, but it will make my arms stronger. That machine is hard, too, but it will tighten my core. And the machine over there is really hard, but it will strengthen my back and legs.”
So, when we put it all together, those machines make you, physically, into the person you want to be. And that’s what trials do for us, spiritually.
So, we don’t have to enjoy the trials, and we certainly won’t find them easy – or they wouldn’t be trials – but it can help us endure them if we understand that they are the instruments God uses to make us into the kind of person He wants us to be – and the kind of person we want to be.
Trials are just spiritual exercise machines.
Trials Benefit Us in Eternity
And not only that, but those trials are also a source of eternal wealth. 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.”
Added to that, 2 Corinthians 4:16 – 18 says, “therefore we do not lose heart, for 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…”
So, we see that we receive disproportionate eternal reward for the things we suffer in this life. The greater the trial, the greater the reward.
It is as Timothy Keller wrote:
“On the day of the Lord – the day that God makes everything right, the day that everything sad becomes untrue – on that day the same thing will happen to your own hurts and sadness. You will find that the worst things that ever happened to you will in the end only enhance your eternal delight. On that day, all of it will be turned inside out and you will know joy beyond the walls of the world. The joy of your glory will be that much greater for every scar you bear.”
Conclusion
The day will come when the Lord will wipe away every tear from our eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; those things will have passed away. (Revelation 21:4)
Until then, we pray for grace and mercy to endure. Hebrews 4:15 says, “We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
We may pray for joy when we encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of our faith produces endurance. And we may pray for grace and mercy so that endurance may have its perfect result, that we may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing.
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