Purpose and Promise of God in Trials of Life
It’s been over two months since the lock-down due to COVD-19. It seems like things are opening up in our province, but the process will be slow and gradual. I look forward to seeing you and to gathering together for worship and fellowship. One thing we have learned from this experience, however, is the wisdom in James 4: “You do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’” (vv.14-15).
So “if the Lord wills,” we will live on, meet up, gather for in-person corporate worship and fellowship. We are humbled in this season to acknowledge that we are not in control. We are put in a place of humility and dependence on God. And I believe it is a good place to be however long and in whatever form the lock-down continues. I believe it’s a blessing to be in a place of humble dependence on God. If we can come out of COVID-19 with that posture and attitude of humility, that will be wonderful. That will glorify God, edify the church, and bless people.
From this week’s devo, I was convicted and comforted by a passage in Psalm 66. The passage is about God testing us and trying us, so that we are refined and humbled. The test includes being trapped like a bird in a cage. The test is living under imposed limitation so that we cannot do what we really want to do. The test includes being stepped on by others and feeling overwhelmed.
Here is the passage I am referring to: “For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. You brought us into the net [like a bird in a cage]; you laid a crushing burden on our backs [literally it means “you imposed pressure on our loins.” “Loins” signifies preparedness for action. So this verse basically is saying “you have imposed limitation on our ability to act.” And we are frustrated]; you let men ride over our heads [“I am being stepped on by people! I am being humiliated. I am not just frustrated; I am angry.]; we went through fire and through water [I am burnt up and burnt out. I feel like drowning. I feel like dying.]” (Ps 66:10-12a).
Have you been feeling stuck lately? Crushed? Restricted? Frustrated? Angry? Burnt out? Drowned? Well, I have. I have been feeling like a bird in a cage. I have been struggling with frustration of having “imposed limitations” that does not allow me to do what I really want to do. And there have been couple of incidents where I did feel being stepped on by people unfairly and with disrespect. There have been moments when I felt overwhelmed. Some of you may be going through something similar to what I am describing. You may have had your shared of frustration and fatigue (yes, zoom fatigue for many of us). You may feel like you are burnt out. You may feel like you have passed the stage of feeling overwhelmed; you feel like you are drowning. You are not alone. I have my share of such experience. And many others feel that way.
What is so encouraging and comforting as I was meditating on the passage was how it begins and how it ends. First, I see that God has a purpose in our experience of feeling trapped and overwhelmed. Our trial has the reality of God’s testing of our faith, “so that the tested genuineness of our faith… may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation [Second Coming ] of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7). God tests us and tries us so that we are refined and purified through those tests. God has a good plan for us and the destiny of God’s plan is conforming us to the image of Jesus (Romans 8:28-29). God is working in our soul, in our character as we go through various trials of life. The fire that we feel like is burning us is God’s refiner’s fire. Feeling stuck, limited, frustrated, fatigued and even burnt-out is our experience as we go through life’s wilderness, especially in this season. But let’s be reminded that God tests us in order to refine us, and because he loves us and has the wonderful plan to make us more like Christ.
And look how the passage ends in v. 12: “yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance” (Ps 66:12b). This is such a wonderful promise. This is word of promise that, after a trying season, God will bring us out out to a place of abundance and overflow. God does not put us through a trial that ends in darkness. God brings us out of the trial and into a place of life and light. Abundant life. God has done it in the past in the lives of Israelites. God has done it in many lives of the saints who follow Jesus. And some of us have experienced it in the past. Some of us are experiencing it even now during (and despited of) the COVID-19 pandemic.
We keep believing and hoping in Christ, because we know that he is sanctifying us in the process, and we believe in his promises. We have the promise of God that he will bring us into a place of abundance.Yes we will experience the fullness of the abundance, when the fullness of God’s kingdom arrives here on earth. But even now for those of who are in Christ, we are promised to experience God’s presence and abounding joy in the midst of our trials through the Spirit.
May we go through the trials in faith and in hope. May we come out of the trials, refined and sanctified. May we experience the promised abundance.
