“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.” James 1:2
Have you ever received a letter that wasn’t addressed to you personally? Instead, it was simply labeled, Occupant. You get that piece of mail because you’re the occupant of your home. Trials are a lot like that. Just by virtue of being an occupant of this fallen world, we will face trials.
Of course, no one likes a trial. No one wakes up in the morning, stretches, and says, “Ah, what a beautiful day for a trial! I think I’d like to have a trial today!” Only an unusual person would do something like that. Yet regardless of how much we want to avoid trials in our lives, they are inevitable.
Trials are adverse circumstances that God allows in our lives to identify where we are spiritually and to prepare us for where He wants us to go. We cannot escape trials. Either you are in a trial now, you’ve just come out of a trial, or you’re getting ready to go into a trial.
But even though we all have to experience them, you can take comfort in knowing that trials must first pass through God’s hands before reaching us. Nothing comes our way without first having received His divine approval. And if a trial is to receive His divine approval, He must have a Divine reason to approve it. We need to trust that God has our best interests in mind when He allows us to experience trials.
Article first published at tonyevans.org
