Fischer 26 |
Bible / Other |
1.
True faith will be tested. Christians, because they are Christians, will
inevitably undergo constant testing. |
I have been crucified with
Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the
body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 2:20 |
2.
The stronger the potential faith, the greater the testing one should
expect. |
In the land of Uz there lived
a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and
shunned evil.... He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.
Job 1:1,2 |
3.
Testing and suffering reminds us who really is Lord of our life...and it's not
us!!! |
Do you not know that your body
is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?
You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your
body. I Corinthians 6:20 |
4.
The hardest thing about suffering is remembering the central focus of the test:
to keep our faith strong.. If we lose this focus, we fail the test. Failure is
never final; God is always forgiving and will restore us even when we have
failed. |
For none of us lives to
himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. If we live, we live to the
Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong
to the Lord. Romans 14;7-8 |
5.
For this reason, as the Christian regularly and daily prays for a stronger
faith, he can also expect that the strengthening of one's faith may best be
accomplished through the experience of testing |
Sixth Petition of the Lord's
Prayer "And lead us not into temptation" What does this mean?
"God indeed tempts no one; but we pray in this petition that God would
guard and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our flesh may not deceive
us not seduce us I into misbelief, despair, and other great shame and vice; and
though we be assailed by them, that still we may finally overcome and obtain
the victory." From Luther's Small Catechism |
6.
Our Christian faith is never so strong that it is ever exempt from or immune to
testing and, at times, failure. Even when we fail, Jesus never forsakes us; He
constantly prays for us before, during, and after testing. |
"Simon, Simon, Satan has
asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith
may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."
But he replied, "Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to
death." Jesus answered, "I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows
today, you will deny three times that you know me." Luke 22:31 |
7.
In order for faith to be strengthened, it must be refined...by fire.
|
When through fiery trials thy
pathway shall lie, My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply. The flames
shall not hurt thee; I only design Thy dross to consume and thy gold to
refine." Source: "How Firm a Foundation," (Hymn 427) Copyright
1941.The Lutheran Hymnal, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House. Reprinted by
Permission |
8.
As our faith is refined, our feelings will, if possible, undermine our
faith.Thus testing ought to drive us to the objective certainty of faith and
not to the subjective despair of emotion.When emotions become uncontrolled--or
uncontrollable--special professional, medical, and/or spiritual intervention
may be required. |
Be self-controlled and alert.
Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to
devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your
brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And
the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you
have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong,
firm and steadfast. I Peter 5:8-9 |
9.
God allows Satan to test us for the purpose of demonstrating to Satan just how
strong a believer's trust in God is; it is Satan who does the damage...to the
extent allowed by God and our sometimes ill-equipped selves |
Examples: Note the relative
range of damage done during the following tesings: The Devil deceived Eve,
tempted Christ(Christ damaged Satan!), possessed Judas to betray Christ ,led
Judas into despair, and led Peter to deny Christ. |
10. God sets the maximum
boundaries for the "allowable" limits of suffering we will endure;
Satan pursues them to the max |
Job
1 |
11. The limits of suffering
may be exceeded if we neglect all of God's provisions for our physical,
emotional well-being. It will almost certainly be exceeded if we give up our
primary defense: Absolute trust in God as He has revealed Himself in Word and
Sacraments. |
Therefore put on the full
armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your
ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Ephesians 6:13
|
12. God does not wish us to
suffer; However, He must test us as we need to be tested. Therefore the most
critical and difficult testings which we will endure can be expected to involve
those things, people (friends, family, etc.) and issues which, from our
perspective, are most highly prized, precious, valuable, esteemed and loved.
Indeed, every essential value, belief, moral, attitude, motivation, world-view
and perspective by which we live will be severely tested and, through such
testing, leave us strengthened for God's service.This is the ultimate focus of
trial: to strengthen our Christian character. |
|
13. Before, during, and after
testing, we ought to constantly examine in which ways our armor is weakened so
as to prepare ourselves for the inevitable next--and greater--testing. The
longer and more severe the testing, the more zealously we need to examine our
armor. |
Finally, my brethren, be
strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of
God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Ephesians
6:10-11 |
14. We need not--and should
not--blame God for suffering which is a result of our own foolish, intentional
sinful actions. Such actions ought direct us to the unlimited forgiveness and
grace of God. |
|
15.
Suffering, for the Christian, is not punishment. It is discipline, specifically
the discipline of Christian character. It is the way God demonstrates that we
are His children |
What shall we then say to
these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his
own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely
give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is
God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also
maketh intercession for us. Romans 8:31 |
16.
Christians are never alone in their testing, even when we feel we have left God
or He has left us.As Jesus prayed for Peter while being "sifted like
wheat" and as the Father continued praying for the return of his lost son
(Luke 15), so God never takes His loving attention from us. He is always
praying on our behalf. |
Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all
the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these
things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am
persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35 |
17. Suffering is not a Means
of Grace. It is, however, a gracious and careful preparation of God for greater
exaltation in His grace. |
|
18.
Thus, whatever suffering we endure as a testing of our faith is cause for joy,
not despair. |
My brethren, count it all joy
when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your
faith worketh patience. James 1:2-3 |
19.
The Christian's final response to the suffering and testing of God is always to
bless God. |
"Naked I came from my
mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken
away; may the name of the LORD be praised." Job 1:21 |
20.
"Why" questions, are an important part of the Christian's grieving
process in that they acknowledge God's power and our weakness before Him. The
answers may be received, as part of the testing, at a later time or, more
often, in the eternal courts of God. During our pilgrimmage on earth, one of
the most useful purposes of "Why" questions are to shape patient,
hopeful, and persevering Christian character. Such questions are so painful
precisely because they deal with the essence and core of our being--our
character. |
|
21. A Christian's trial is not
completed until such time that we have used the promises of God in Word and
Sacrament to deal effectively with grief. Christians who continue attitudes of
anger, self-pity, confusion, tears, etc. will continue experiencing the
overwhelm of these emotions until such time that God's will has been accepted
and assimilated into the Christian's heart and life.Only at such time will
Christians learn how to consider such sufferings "pure joy" (James
1) |
|
22.
Death, at God's time, is the final blessed deliverance from suffering. Until
that time, life will be full of difficulties as we walk in the valley of the
"shadow of death" (Psalm 23). For the Christian, death from an
eternal perspective is never a "tragedy"; instead it is the blessed
deliverance from an evil pain-filled world. |
For I know that my Redeemer
liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though
after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I
shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another." Job
19:25-27 |
23.
The most power testimony of our trust and faith in God is patient endurance
which trusts that God's strength is made perfect in our weakness. Painful
learning of our weakness in trial makes for easier, day-by-day application of
God's power in our everyday living during--and after--trial. |
Three times I pleaded with the
Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient
for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast
all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
II Corinthians 12:8-9 |
24.
After trial, we are never the same. Trial, as God intends, exposes and deepens
our weaknesses even as it uncovers and develops new strengths and opportunities
for ministry. The tears of trial, therefore, are the chisel God uses to change
the Christian's heart painfully--but skillfully--to enliven our hope in Jesus
Christ. |
Therefore, since we have been
justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now
stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also
rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces
perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not
disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy
Spirit, whom he has given us. Romans 5:1-5 |
25. Those whom--or the things
which--God graciously provided to sustain the Christian in trial may also be
painfully removed, as part of the trial, at such time God deems
necessary. |
|
26. God ultimately uses
suffering as an act not of Law, but of Gospel, to draw us and renew us in the
suffering, death, resurrection and forgiveness of Christ into which we have
been baptized. Thus, the ultimate focus of trial is to highlight God's gracious
and undeserved love for us in Christ |
My
son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art
rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth. Hebrews 12:5-6
|