Trouble — Could We make it Our Servant? Part 2

Tip! 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 do you use trouble? Naturally, because of physical and fundamental elements in our make-up, we shun pain, discomfort and trouble. But that is because we relate them purely to their action on the physical or on our present mood. Many times we will spend hours in praying away trouble, the great servant. At times we take long, circuitous journeys to avoid meeting her. Finally, when we are compelled to meet her, we spend a long, long time telling her or God that we do not like her and we wonder and wonder why we ever had to meet her. But trouble is not to be reasoned with; she is utterly unreasonable. She is to be used.

Please remove from your minds the incorrect thought that if you are a good or a real spiritual Christian totally yielded and holy then your life will be a charmed life and that God will spare you from trouble or disappointment. No! To reach such a fine place of devotion and surrender is only to make you a fit candidate for tribulation.

Tribulation is a word God uses in relation to saints. The etymology of the word means threshing. The farmer does not thresh weeds; he threshes the golden wheat that the grain may be separated from the chaff and the sticks. He is after grain, not trying to pound out some straw. For this reason God says, Tribulation works patience; that is, the golden grain of patience, long-suffering and kindness, comes by way of threshing or tribulation. Think of the splendid spiritual grain of character and noble living produced only through the tribulation process. The spiritual tone and quality of the mighty people of God came only through trouble and suffering.

In the world about us, in the fields of fine music, art and literature, the artist never reaches the pinnacle of their labors and gives to the world the best in creative beauty and strength until they have known the sad touch of personal sorrow or grief or trouble. Oftentimes it is like a divine chemist turning the ordinary and dull life into a glorious display of divine power, fortitude and beauty. It is the use of trouble that releases the deeper springs of our lives and sets allow the streams of mercy and understanding of which our perishing world needs today.

Tip! Trouble will make you either bitter or better. Notice how very much alike these words are, and how very little is needed to change them; just the letter “I.” Yes, dear ones, it is the “I” that changes the whole matter.

Do not misunderstand me; I am not saying that trouble alone makes us strong or noble or that it alone has a transforming power. I am dealing with you as Christians who believe Romans 8:28, and that text, as you see, is never to be applied to lives which are not fully surrendered. That is why many unsaved people never understand the outworking of the Scriptures in the daily walk, but if the Christian has anything remotely approaching the Spirit of Christ; they can make trouble a servant to bring out the best in them.

Tip! What are you seeking in your trouble today? Is it deliverance or development? You may have the one and not grow, or you may have both and grow. Get the development first and the deliverance will be yours, too.

But trouble in itself is neutral or passive; the whole matter depends upon how we use it. One may take an inactive attitude and lose the benefit of the trial; justify themselves, and trouble will make them bitter or resentful, or it can make them hard, cruel and cynical. People who have no faith, no perspective of thought or vision, let trouble do all sorts of harmful and cruel things to them, but thanks be to God there are many wonderful people on whom trouble has fallen who were able to see and to discern behind its mask a servant at their beck and call, to build them, lives of strength and beauty.

In a simple study of such lives we find a certain creative power which makes out of their calamity a magnificent privilege. You may have noticed that in our lives there are two types reaction to trouble or tragedy: either it will break us in spirit, melting the hardness and bringing us in our helplessness to God, or it will throw us on our feeble resources and human reasoning, and this in turn at times hardens us in spirit, makes us critical and often cynical. It robs our hearts of the great privilege of trusting God and the developing of our life into rich and helpful avenues.