One of my good friends recently shared with me a story he read on Open Doors about a little girl who lived overseas in a Hindu family. Someone shared the gospel with her and she listened, believed, and gave her life to Jesus. When she returned home with a Bible to tell her parents what she had done, she was met with resistance. They burned the book, and her father beat her, ordering her not to read or talk about Jesus. She continued to sneak out to meet her friends and talk about Jesus, often bringing home a Bible to read. Every time she was discovered, her Bible was burned and her father beat her. And every time, she sought the word and her friends again.
I read the testimonies of people in the Bible and overseas in countries where they are persecuted for believing the gospel and I marvel at their faith. Then I ask God to give me the strength to withstand the enemy if a situation like Peter and John’s (Act 3:6) or the girl’s ever arises, but honestly I doubt that it ever will.
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2-4).
I believe that God often looks at my hypotheticals and thinks, “Why don’t you start with strength to mention me to that friend who you see every day in class or strength to go to sleep earlier so you can wake up and study my word?”
I think God gives us trials every day that we dismiss as ‘little trials’ that don’t matter, when in fact these are the very trials God wants to use to refine us. And so we often fail the testing of our faith.
Do we hunger for those opportunities? Do we wake up every day with the desire to share the gift that we have been given?
What if we took the time to let these ‘little trials’ grow us and build perseverance, making us mature and complete. Maybe we would grow daily and look more like Jesus.
I’m learning to embrace these ‘little trials’ of my faith, letting these tests produce perseverance in me to make me a complete believer. It’s probably then that I will face persecution.
We will face troubles. Our faith will meet resistance. But take heart! Jesus knew it would.
2 Responses
I thank God for my trials and for His faithfulness .
This is so good and so insightful. You shown me a whole new perspective. Thank you!