“Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.” Job 10:2 (KJV)
If today you are tired, worn down, and acutely feeling the pressures of daily life, perhaps the Lord is doing this to develop your graces. Some of your graces would never be discovered if it we didn’t face trials in our lives.
Do you realize that your faith never looks as grand in summer weather as it does in winter? Love is too often like a firefly, showing little light except when it is in the midst of surrounding darkness. Hope itself is like a star, not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity, and only to be discovered in the night of adversity. Afflictions are often the black foils in which God sets the jewels of His children’s graces, to make them shine even greater.
It may have been only a little while ago that, on your knees, you were saying, “Lord, I fear I have no faith: let me know that I have faith.” Were you not really, though perhaps unknowingly, praying for trials? For how can you know that you have faith until your faith is tested? God often sends us trials so that our graces may be discovered, and that we may know for sure of their existence.
It is not merely discovery. Real growth in grace is the result of sanctified trials. God often takes away our comforts and our privileges in order to make us better Christians. He trains His children, not in dwellings of ease and luxury, but by using them in hard service. He makes them cross through streams, swim through rivers, climb mountains, and walk many long miles with heavy backpacks of sorrow on their shoulders. Could this sanctification account for the troubles you are facing? Is not the Lord bringing out your graces, and making them grow? Is not this the reason why He is contending with you?
“Trials make the promise sweet; Trials give new life to prayer; Trials bring me to His feet, Lay me low, and keep me there.”
Question: Do you know someone who’s been going through trials who might appreciate hearing this message?
By Charles H. Spurgeon.
Updated to modern English by Darren Hewer, 2009.
Used by Permission
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