Trials bring growth, strength where needed most

When new believers turn their life over to the Lord, many of them expect their lives to suddenly become charmed, magical almost. The thinking is that God is going to put an invisible bubble around you that keeps evil and hard times away.
Well, that isn’t the case. If everything in your life was perfect, if you had no trials, after a while you would think you no longer needed God. That He isn’t necessary. That thinking is so wrong.
I think that when you start becoming stronger in your walk with God it is almost like an alarm goes off that alerts Satan and sets him out to try his hardest to tempt you away from God. Suddenly things start going wrong, life gets hard, then you have a decision to make.
You know that image you see in movies or cartoons where the devil is on one shoulder and an angel on the other? We have times in our lives that are really like that.
We have to make the decision to take the road through our trials that will lead to our ultimate victory even though it may be a rough ride at times, or we turn away from God and go with whatever is easiest or “more fun.”
Some of the trials we have are to strengthen us in areas we most need work – for me that seems to be patience and obedience. Obviously I am a slow learner otherwise I would be the most patient person in the world by now. Children, jobs, relationships, family and every day life are all trials of patience.
Obedience is a hard one. Instead of listening and doing things God’s way I have a really bad habit of wanting to do them my way. I have become an expert at rationalizing why I should or shouldn’t do something.
My internal dialogue may go something like this, “That can’t be what He really wants, maybe what I am really supposed to do is this.” Just so you know, that doesn’t usually go so well for me. I look back and realize if I had listened in the first place, things would have turned out much differently.
In being obedient to the Lord we are to hear His word and do his will.
James 1:22 says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
In some cases that is easy. I have no intention or desire to ever commit murder, adultery or steal.
In some cases it is not so easy, such as when God commands you to do something you can’t see how, in your worldly mind, will be possible. It’s a good thing the world’s way isn’t God’s way. He can do things and make things happen in ways we can’t even begin to imagine.
What if we didn’t listen to God and decided to go our own way instead? That happens and will happen again. As a consequence we will go through hard times we wouldn’t have faced otherwise or miss out on a blessing that was planned for us. But all is not lost.
Because we have been given the gift of forgiveness we have the chance to confess our disobedience to the Lord and receive his mercy and complete forgiveness. Then we can make the right decision, the decision to do things God’s way.
Romans 11:30-31 says, “Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you.”