"What Have You Learned Since My Last Visit"

“What Have You Learned Since My Last Visit?”

1st Peter 4:12

God has a way of checking on your spiritual progress. If you name the name of Christ, trials and tribulations are part and parcel of the journey.

Quite simply, they are to be expected. Trials and tribulations are the essentials in the toolbox of God. God uses them to make disciples. You have heard the saying from those who are in training: “no pain – no gain.” Well, in the Christian life, the saying is: “no trials – no gain.”

From a pastoral perspective, what is so surprising is that God gives us, through His Word (e.g. the various Bible Studies we have attended, all the services that we have been a part of), a play by play synopsis of life, and yet the very one who calls himself or herself a Christian is still caught off guard!

The Apostle Peter put it in language that we can all understand in 1st Peter 4:12. This verse reads in the NLT:

“Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you.” Let me share three points about trials and tribulations.

1. Trials and tribulations are used by God to change you.

• a. God uses trials to make disciples (Galatians 4:19; Romans 8:29).
• b. Peter denied Christ three times (Matthew 26:33-35).

1. God will allow Satan, through trials and tribulations to test what God is building in our lives.

• a. God allowed Satan to sift Peter as wheat (Luke 22:31-32).
• b. God offered Job to Satan (Job 1:8).
• c. The New Testament Greek word for “fiery” is “purosis” [poo'-ro-sis] which means “burning.” This image is that of the refiner’s fire.

There are only a few issues or growth areas in each life.

• a. Trials are appointed (or assigned) to our lives (1st Thessalonians 3:3).
• b. Testing occurs in areas where we are consistently inconsistent (Genesis 4:7).

“Christ First, Christ Only, Christ Always”