In some moments, we will find trials of life. How can we still believe in providence when we are confronted with the dramas of life? Beyond revolt and supplication, contemplating Jesus crucified trusting in his Father can bring peace, return the tragic to its spiritual meaning and the grace of hope.

Grief, miscarriage, separation, unemployment, loneliness, serious illness, difficulties are inseparable from human existence. But each time, their occurrence resonates as a kind of betrayal of life, a sudden burst of our peaceful bubble, with the impression of seeing what we have built crumble and the image we had of ourselves crumble. Added to this for the believer is the test of faith: "He may have the feeling that God is absent and not supporting him.

Going through the trials of life means first of all screaming, crying, rebelling

"My God, why have you abandoned me?". Jesus' cry resounds in every human tragedy: "I thought I had a complicity, a closeness with God, and suddenly it is silence, abandonment." Overcoming the ordeal means first of all crying out, weeping, rebelling. And not recovering immediately.

Wanting to straighten up right away is illusory: getting up is a long road. The first gesture is to recognize oneself defeated. To go through a trial means first of all to scream, to cry, to rebel. And not recovering immediately. The psalms are full of these cries and tears. 

How to get through the trials

As Christians, we will all go through trials. They can be very varied: sometimes a financial crisis or a health problem, sometimes the sudden deterioration of a relationship, sometimes rejection or persecution because of our faith, or even finding ourselves in some dark tunnel with no light at the end. Whatever the test, it is important to remember that God cares more about our character than our performance.

What to do

First, we must distinguish between judgment and punishment. Often, as Christians, we do not recognize the punishment that comes to us from God. Therefore, we adopt an attitude of resistance to the devil, when in fact we should submit to God. The fundamental problem thus exposed in our character becomes, in fact, pride.

The end of Psalm 19 presents a prayer that Ruth and I have often repeated:

Who understands your mistakes? Purify me from my hidden faults. Also keep your servant from sins committed in pride; do not overpower me; then I will be blameless, and will be innocent of the great transgression.

I realized that secret flaws are not secrets one hides from others, much less from God. They are secrets to oneself, flaws in our personality that we don't recognize. David calls them sins of presumption. The sins we commit when we assume that our conduct is acceptable to God, when in fact it offends Him. 

Often the Lord does not reveal such sins to us until we have deliberately chosen to humble ourselves, inviting Him to probe our character and expose our innermost motives. Once we realize that we are going through a period of testing from God, we need to be sure that our fundamentals, or our backsides, are covered.

Repentance

Repentance is perhaps the fundamental Christian doctrine least supported by contemporary preachers. "Just believe" is a message that sounds sweet, but is not in accord with Scripture. 

Throughout the New Testament the message is "First repent, then believe!" When there is sin obstructing our lives, any form of faith that does not proceed from repentance is a humanistic counterfeit. It does not produce the results that come from genuine faith.

Commitment

According to Rom.10:9, two conditions are essential for salvation: to believe with all your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.

When we confess Jesus as Lord, we give Him total control over our whole life, our time, our money, our talents, our priorities, our relationships. You cannot keep anything to yourself. Someone has said, "If Jesus is not Lord in everything, then He is not Lord!"

faith trials of life