Testing of Faith
In This World You Will Have Trouble…
Why, God? Why me? Why now? Why here? Why this? Why am I in this valley of sickness, pain, suffering, shame, hopelessness? God, why don’t you heal me from this thing? Oh, how many times have I asked myself these questions as I traveled through one of life’s valleys? I want to stay on the mountain top where I can see for miles, see where I’m going, live above the troubles of the city in the valley below. But do I really? Do I really want to stay where the winds are cold, the oxygen thin, the winter severe with troubles of its own, the terrain is rugged and a wrong step can be deadly? How about the plains…the flat expansion of earth that’s not really a valley formed at the base of two mountains, but doesn’t have the rugged edges of the mountain top? You know the easy place where life is predictable, the children are respectful and help with the dishes, husband and wives love each other with abandon, everyone is healthy, the bills are always paid on time….
We don’t live in this nirvana, we live in a broken world that is full of sin and suffering. A world where our faith is tested daily, sometimes more severely, more painfully than others. Sometimes we barely recognize the testing and passing or failing can have life long implications.
Why must we go through this testing? Much like the refining of metals to remove impurities and make it stronger, the successful testing of our faith makes us stronger and deepens our trust in God. When others see how we respond to the difficult time in our lives it can affect their personal walk with God. My cousin, Brooke, has been battling stage 4 breast cancer for several years now. This is her second battle with this terrible disease and the aggressive nature of this battle leaves little hope for a complete remission. Brooke has three elementary-aged children and works as the Women’s Ministry Director at a large church in Columbia, SC. Her husband, Justin, was killed in a biking accident last August. I am in awe of her strong faith and how she continues to rely on God in all things. Through her social media posts, speaking engagements, and personal interactions I am sure she is strengthening others. Her facebook page is here. God has provided a strong faith-filled family and community of friends who help her manage her treatments and family obligations as she continues with chemo treatments to keep the cancer in check.
There are numerous instances of the testing of faith in scripture. Jesus was tested by the devil for 40 days; Peter and the other disciples were tested and martyred for their faith, Job was tested when the devil took his children and his earthly belongings. They all came through with stronger faith, faith enough to die for what they believed in. Jesus now sits at the right hand of God, the disciples at His feet, and Job was given even more than he previously possessed. They were faithful during their testing.
There are also examples in Scripture where the testing didn’t go so well. Adam and Eve gave in to the serpent’s testing by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, resulting in their being banished from the Garden of Eden. Moses killed a slave master. King David had an affair with a married woman and tried to cover it up by having her husband killed. Still, God used them for His purposes and their names are familiar to both Jews and Christians.
In John 10:10a (NLT) Jesus says, “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.” The thief wants to take our joy, to test our faith and see how strong it is. How we respond is crucial to where our path takes us. How do we navigate our valleys, and even the precarious mountaintop well?
Before your faith is tested, surround yourself with strong believers:
We live in a society where fewer and fewer feel they have the need or the time to attend church services, yet this is where we are most likely to find strong believers. Listening to podcasts or religious music, watching services online, or doing online Bible Studies are great to expand our knowledge of Jesus Christ, but they don’t give us the benefit of intimate knowledge and relationship found in community with other believers. Church people are no more perfect than you are, made from the same dust, molded by the same God.
Other strong believers may be in your family or in your neighborhood. Seek them out, discuss your faith and their faith. Share your fears and joys. Start a bible study in your home or at work and be willing to be vulnerable with the attendees. Then you will know who you can turn to and trust when you are tested.
As your faith is being tested, get a team:
In March of 2018 my 10 year-old grandson was admitted to the hospital because he was having trouble breathing. The diagnosis was asthma and atypical pneumonia. After he was released and spent a week at home, he, his sister, and a cousin came to stay with my husband and I, over 500 miles away. He did well - swimming in the pool, going to the zoo, and other area attractions, as long as he didn’t overdo it and had his inhaler handy. Upon returning home to his parents and to school he began having even more trouble breathing than before. Back to the hospital where a CT scan showed a 90% blockage in his trachea that wasn’t readily visible in the X-rays taken during his first stay. He was air-lifted to a premier children’s hospital where the surgical team was assembled and a strategy for removing this growth without collapsing his lungs, suffocating him, or leaving some of it behind was developed. This season was probably the most I’ve had my faith tested in a long time. “Faith over fear” became my unspoken mantra as I prayed for his healing. During this time I felt the prayers of my team of friends, family, and church washing over my sweet grandson, his parents, and me. A prayer warrior I’ve never met had a vision of Saint Raphael, the Catholic Saint of Healing, standing over my grandson…as a Methodist, the Saints are rather unknown to me, but the peace of mind this gave me is undeniable. The surgery was successful and that child of God is able to run and play with his cousins and friends, not worrying about having asthma! This team of prayer warriors helped strengthen my trust in God as the surgical team strengthened my trust in medicine. Our struggles don’t have to be wrestled with in a vacuum. Get a team!
As your faith is being tested, tell God how you feel:
Your prayers don’t have to be just about solving the struggle. When I was a teenager I thought little of telling my parents when I didn’t agree with a decision or family rule or being grounded for ignoring said rule. Yet, I have to remind myself that I can go to my Heavenly Father with my hurts, my frustrations, my anger at what I’m facing. We serve a loving God who wants to have a relationship with us and open communication is key. Yes, God is all-knowing and doesn’t need me to tell Him what’s going on in my heart and mind…But just like I know the answer my kids will give me when I ask how his or her day went, I still like to have the interaction. Getting what I’m feeling out in the open helps me process, it sparks clarity, it helps me understand better why I’m in this situation.
After the testing, praise God:
I am currently reading “It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way” by Lysa TerKeurst. Here is a link. If you’ve read Lysa’s earlier books you know that she is very vocal about the struggles she has had during her life. In 2008 Lysa revealed that she’d had an abortion 16 years earlier. The faith needed for someone who is so visible as a woman of God to step out and own this action and the subsequent pain is unfathomable to me. In “It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way” she discusses going through betrayal and two life-threatening health issues, yet she comes out praising God and the blessings she has received from these valleys…or in this life “between two gardens” as she likes to put it. She praises God for the pain that kept her hospitalized until the doctors could find out what was wrong, thus, saving her life. She praises Him for the time she needed to sit and just be, and heal.
My cousin, Brooke, praises God for each day, each moment, that she receives to spend with her children and extended family. Would she have chosen this path? Definitely not! Is she modeling what a solid faith looks like even during extreme adversity? Most definitely!
What the evil one intends to harm, to shame, to lessen our focus on our loving, faithful Heavenly Father, our God uses for good (Romand 8:28). Lysa’s and Brooke’s stories encourage thousands of women. The biblical accounts of Joseph (Genesis 37-50) and Ruth (the book of Ruth) encourage both men and women to place their faith in God, knowing that He has plans for each of us, to prosper us, and give us a life worth living (Jeremiah 29:11). In the second half of John 10:10 Jesus states, “My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” Praise God, for He is faithful, He loves us, He promises to never forsake us! Praise Him for loving us enough to see us through the valleys of our lives, to allow us to be challenged in a way that makes us stronger. We live in a fallen world; let’s be thankful that God is with us each step of the way!
Why me, God? Better yet… Why not me? Jesus said, “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Thank you, Jesus!
