Devotion 16 – Faith in Times of Adversity

 

Devotion 16 – Faith in Times of Adversity

Jas.1:2-4 - ^“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

 

To endure and remain steadfast in faith when facing difficult trials is already very commendable, but to be able to rejoice, that seems an unreasonable expectation. However, that is because we tend to focus on the adversity, rather than looking beyond, with eyes of faith, to see what God is doing in our lives.

 

God’s character and His nature are constant, and He never acts outside His nature or character. When we fail to trust God in times of adversity, we are doubting His nature and character, His love, His wisdom and His sovereignty. We need to trust God even when we do not understand!

Butterfly coming out of the Cocoon

The story is frequently told of someone who watched a butterfly struggling to come out of its cocoon. Trying to help, he snipped the shell of the cocoon. The butterfly came out shortly after, but with its wings all crimped and shrivelled. The struggle to emerge from the cocoon was an essential part of developing the muscle system of the butterfly body and pushing the body fluids out into the wings to expand them. The adversities of life are much like the cocoon of the butterfly. God uses them to develop the essential spiritual “muscle system” of our lives.

Jn.15:2 - “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and very branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”

 

In the natural realm, pruning is important for fruit bearing. In the scriptural realm, God also needs to prune us. Through the Word we are nourished, but often, it is through adversity that we are pruned. And pruning often occurs through trials because suffering tends to reveal who we really are. Although we are believers, we still have our sinful nature, and we tend to pour our spiritual energies into that which is not true fruit. We tend to seek position, success and reputation even in the body of Christ.  We tend to depend on our natural talents and human wisdom. We are easily distracted and attracted by the things of the world – its pleasure and possessions.

God uses adversity to loosen our grip on things. Adversity helps us relinquish our desires and expectations – even good ones – to the sovereign will of God. It makes us more and more dependent on God. Our biggest problem is not outside of us, but inside our own hearts. External circumstances do not create what is in our heart; they are merely the “stage” on which the condition of our heart is revealed.

Lam.3:33 – “He does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men”

 

God does not delight in our suffering; however, He does not shrink from that which will help us grow. If we can trust God to use our pain to make us more like Christ, we can have joy amid our trials and embrace the pruning knife of our Heavenly Father. His intent is that we may bear fruit - more fruit, much fruit to His praise and glory. 

Learning from Adversity

 

Rom.5:3-4 – “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.

 

The testing of our faith develops perseverance, and perseverance leads to maturity of our character. Since God works in our lives through adversity, we must learn to respond to what He is doing.  Make His purpose our purpose.

We can search for scriptures related to our trials and circumstances, and study them to gain new insight into truth. Although we may be going to the scriptures to learn how to respond to our adversities, we will find that those adversities in turn help us to understand the scripture. They help transform “head knowledge” to “heart knowledge”. The word of God and adversity have a synergistic effect as God uses them together to bring about the growth in our lives; neither the word nor adversity would be able to accomplish this if used by itself.

Fruit of the Spirit is Developed through Adversity

Gal.5:22-23 - “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

 

These virtues cannot be learned just by reading the scripture, they are often developed in the womb of adversity. We may think we have true Christian love until someone offends us or treats us unjustly. We may think we have true Christian joy until our lives are shattered by an unexpected calamity or grievous disappointment.

 

How do we respond when we find ourselves in unfavourable situations – a nasty boss, an unreasonable spouse, a rebellious child, etc.? Can we trust that God can and will work in the heart of that individual to bring about His plan for us? Or if someone is out to harm us, ruin our reputation, or jeopardize our career or ministry, can we trust God to sovereignly intervene in the heart of that person so that he does not carry out his evil intent?

Prov.21:1 – “The King’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.

Today, we do not have the king as our figure head, so we may not appreciate fully what God is saying to us. In those days, the king’s word was the law. His authority was unlimited and unrestrained.  Yet the Scripture tells us that God controls the king’s heart. God can easily direct the will of the most powerful heart as easily as the farmer directs the flow of water in irrigation regardless of whether he is a worshiper of God.

Anger and resentment are often symptoms indicating that we are not resting in God’s sovereignty. If we can fully rest in God’s absolute sovereignty, we will be able to experience joy amid various trials in life. For believers, all pain has meaning, all adversity is profitable!