Trouble — Could We make it Our Servant? Part 1

Tip! Some live as though life and the Christian experience were some kind of slot machine: you put in a dime’s worth of kindness and pull out three yards of blessing; then five cents’ worth of charity and you think God must bless you next Saturday night.

Did you ever test yourself as to how you react to trouble or tragedy? In life's school we often find that God uses trouble or misfortune to prove our faith or to test our character. Trouble has a way of stalking down the road and meeting us so many times when we least expect it.

I am sure we all know that such proving or testing can happen to us without our being personally or directly the cause of it. Many, many times it is beyond our control. If it were otherwise possible we would probably avoid all such testing and keep to an easy, smooth path. But we should remember that trouble, as well as the hours of sunshine and music is a part of the divine arrangement and has a place in our program. Trouble and severe testing is not necessarily a sign of sin, failure, or lack of spirituality. They are often a sign of spirituality and growth which God must test and prove, because we are His workmanship.

Many people have the notion that the life of the Christian is, or should be somewhat charmed, void of trouble, testing, tribulation and suffering. Such people have shaped up for themselves, or hold this as an ideal of real Christian living, but this is an impossible or unscriptural conception of the Christian life.

Where in the world have these people, so bewitched, been living all these years, or what books or TV shows have they been watching or reading is beyond me! Surely they do not know history, Christian experience or the every least the Holy Bible. Because the truth is this -

"Yet man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward." (Job 5:7)

"Many are the afflictions of the righteous; But the LORD delivers him out of them all." (Psalms 34:19)

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory," (2 Corinthians 4:17)

"Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution." (2 Timothy 3:12).

"These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

"And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance;" (Romans 5:3)

Surely on the basis of all these Scriptures, we as Christians know better than to pray for exemption from trouble, and since we know that in God's plan it is a part of our inheritance, we should not avoid its special place of work in our lives.

Tip! Surely on the basis of all these Scriptures, we as Christians know better than to pray for exemption from trouble, and since we know that in God’s plan it is a part of our inheritance, we should not avoid its special place of work in our lives.

History is full of examples of lives wrecked because of ungraceful reaction to trouble. In spite of all the collected experiences of people over the ages, and the wisdom and the philosophy of the prophets, many still fail to recognize that behind her mask, trouble is a servant to assist us. Any other view is due to lack of vision and outlook in that range. Too many of us only see the immediate, or the local, and interpret our lives and family members questions from a limited viewpoint. The Scriptures say, "While we look not at the things which are seen."

As Christians, after we are convinced in our hearts that trouble is not designed to defeat us and is not a mere nuisance or cruelty, but is one of the corrective elements in great living, we must learn how to use it the way God wants us to use it.

How many problems would be solved and shipwrecks of faith be avoided could we take a positive, constructive attitude and see that trouble is one of the agents and mighty instruments placed in our hands for the shaping of character and the releasing of potential power for correct and glorious building!