Day 51: Faith Birthed In Affliction

The Bible makes it clear that our trials are orchestrated by God. It was he who allowed the Israelites to hunger and thirst — even though he was always faithful to his Word and miraculously provided for his people. “He brought quail, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven. He opened the rock, and water gushed out … For He remembered His holy promise” (Psalm 105:40-42).

The Father led the children of Israel into dire testings for a specific purpose: to prepare them to trust his holy Word. Why? Because he was about to take them into a land where they would need absolute confidence in his promises.

How many Christians have experienced God’s deliverance, only to be brought quickly to a place of severe testing? The fact is, all true faith is birthed in affliction and can’t be drawn out of us in any other way. When we are in the midst of a trial and we turn to God’s Word — choosing to live or die by his promises to us — the outcome is faith! Faith grows from test to test, until the Lord has a people whose testimony is, “Our God is faithful.”

Without faith, it is simply impossible to please God. You may object, “But everything you’re talking about so far is Old Testament. We live in a day of grace.” Remember God’s Word in Hebrews: “To whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief … Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God” (Hebrews 3:18-19, 12).

Whenever we become discouraged in our faith, we have to discipline ourselves to recall all that God has brought us through. We must remember the miracles he has provided in our hard times and rejoice, knowing he is pleased with what he has done.

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9). Choose today to trust your heavenly Father!

I used to wonder how the Israelites could go from actually seeing all the amazing things the Lord did to free them from Pharaoh's slavery only to whine and complain when they got tired of eating the manna He provided - miraculously - every single day to feed them as the journeyed through the barren wilderness. Surely seeing such supernatural things would burn such an impression in their minds that there was no way they could EVER doubt God, right?! But they did.

Yet how many of us do the same thing? I think we, like them, need to be reminded of all the times God has answered our prayers, provided for our needs, healed us, comforted us, spoken to us through His word and strengthened us in our time of need. The Israelites built pillars/monuments of stones as memorials along the way to remember God's deliverance. For example:

Deuteronomy 27:2-3
So it shall be on the day when you cross the Jordan to the land which the Lord your God gives you, that you shall set up for yourself large stones and coat them with lime and write on them all the words of this law, when you cross over, so that you may enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, promised you.

As Christians, God writes these memorials upon our hearts.

2 Corinthians 3:3,4
It is clear that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such confidence before God is ours through Christ.

Though we shouldn't need to have physical reminders of God's provision and presence, it probably wouldn't hurt to keep a personal journal to track our prayers and God's answers to them. Then, when doubt creeps in we can have a reminder that He loves us and has a plan for our lives. Times of testing and trials are inevitable in this fallen world but we have the promise of Almighty God that He will never leave us or forsake us:

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence: “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? (Hebrews 13:5,6)

Now, I don't claim that I am always victorious over every doubt or that I never get discouraged, but I am old enough and have gone through enough that those times are fewer and WAY shorter. I only wish I knew "back then" what I know now. Why does this kind of wisdom have to come with age??? I guess it's a lived thing. Nobody can just transfer their experience or faith to someone else. All we can do is be examples to others of a living faith - one that endures no matter how bad things get. A faith that demonstrates its strength in real life. It's a faith that is rock solid because it is built upon THE rock. And it will never fail because God is at work within us perfecting our faith because it is by faith that we stand firm.

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 stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1,2)

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