TRIALS
DR. JIM DIXON
1 PETER 4:12–5:11
APRIL 4, 1979
James says, “Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2-3). James tells us that trials are designed to make us strong. Trials are designed to make us steadfast. Trials are designed to make us perfect. Trials are designed to make us complete. Therefore, says James, we should rejoice whenever we experience trials. We should count it all joy when we are in the midst of a trial. But I have found in my life that that is a hard attitude to adopt. Perhaps you have found that out, too. How do you rejoice when you are in heavy traffic and you are late for an appointment? How do you rejoice when you lock your keys inside the car, which I have done many times? How do you rejoice when your television set goes out in the middle of your favorite program?
More seriously, how do you count it all joy, when you experience the death of a husband or a wife, which people in our church have experienced and some just this past week? How do you count it all joy when a child is born to you who has some irregularity either mentally or physically? People in our church have experienced that and some just this past week. How do you count it all joy when you have a financial setback and you are unable to pay your bills, unable to make your monthly payments? Some people in our church have experienced that and some just this past week. How do you count it all joy when you experience a heart attack and you find yourself in bed in a hospital? Many people in our church have experienced that, and, again, some just this past week. But I am sure that James would remind us that it is easy for us to lose our perspective.
Even as Christians, it is easy for us to lose our perspective in a moment of trial. It is easy for us to lose sight of the eternal in the midst of the temporal. It is easy for us to lose sight of the big picture that is given to us in Christ in the midst of a moment of crisis. It is easy for us to lose sight of the hope that is ours in Christ Jesus. In the midst of a moment of despair, the scriptures do tell us that we grow through trials. The scriptures tell us that trials only serve to make us strong, only serve to make us more like our Lord Jesus Christ. The scriptures tell us that we grow through resistance, which we can understand physically. We know that a muscle that is never used, a muscle that meets no resistance, a muscle that has never tried, a muscle that is never tested becomes weak. It becomes flabby. It becomes useless. So it is with our lives. So it is with our spirits.
When I was in college, for four years I lifted weights. I was on the track team, and the track coach required that everybody on the track team lift weights. I did not want to lift weights because I knew that there was a certain amount of pain involved. I also knew that it was hard work, and I had this kind of picture in my mind where I thought of weightlifters as dumb. I should not have thought that, but I did. In fact, there was a sign in the weight room that said, “Yesterday I didn’t even know how to spell weightlifter, and today I am one.” I thought, that sounds to me like something a weightlifter would say. Nevertheless, for four years I lifted weights six days a week, two hours a day.
In weightlifting you grow. You gain strength through resistance. When you are able to push a weight, you increase the resistance in order that you might increase your gain in strength. If you are able to lift 300 pounds, you would be very disappointed if you only had 290 pounds because you would no longer be able to grow. I came to the point where I began to appreciate the trials of weightlifting. I came to the point when I began to appreciate the test of weightlifting. I began to appreciate what it was doing for me because it was helping me throw the javelin and was helping me in the long jump. I needed more help than what it could give, but it was helping me. So I began to appreciate it. I got to the point where if somebody would have closed down that weightlifting area, I would have been angry. I came to the point where I counted it all joy when I went to lift weights.
We can approach trials in life with the same attitude, but only as Christians. There are no other people in the world who can approach trials with that attitude. Only as Christians can we go into trials and know that by the power of the Holy Spirit they serve to make us stronger.
I read a book called Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. How many of you have read that book? A few of you. I see that it is not really too big here. The book does not have much to say about motorcycle maintenance, but it has a lot to say about philosophy. It is written by a man named Pirsig. He was into the philosophies of the Eastern religions. I think what he was trying to say in his book is that we tend to view things externally in terms of what they can do for us, and we do not view things in terms of their internal value, their innate worth. That point is well taken though it does not really have anything to do with what I am trying to say here this morning.
In the book, there is a father and his son. There were going cross country on a motorcycle; and as they encountered the various trials of life, they kind of share their philosophy about it. That is really the whole book. They are philosophizing as they go through life encountering trials. They are not able to approach them from a Christian perspective. Nevertheless, they come to some measure of resolution. At the end of the book, after they have come through all these trials and have endured, the father says to the son, “Things are going to get better. I just sense it. We’ve won the victory. Things are going to get better.”
That is very appealing to the world, and it is easy to say that when you come out of a trial. But as Christians, we can say that when we go into a trial. When we are in the middle of a trial, we know that things are going to get better because all things work together for good to those who love the Lord (Romans 8:28). We know that we have won the victory even when we are in the midst of a trial because Jesus Christ has won the victory for us.
Peter says, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7). Peter is saying that trials in life serve to test our faith. As fire tests gold and precious metals, as fire purifies gold and precious metals, so it is that trials in life purify the faith of the Christian.
Our trials serve as purifying fire. Barb and I have come to regard our children as purifying fire in our life. We love Heather and Drew very much, and they are very precious to us; but they are a trial. By the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, they serve as purifying fire. I used to teach classes here at the church in child rearing. That was before I had any children. I was sharing this with my class on Thursday morning. You may have noticed that since we had children, I have never taught anymore classes on child rearing. But the things I said in those classes I still believe because the things I said are from the scriptures. They are true, but they are not easy to apply. It is not easy to rear children.
Sometimes I have a hard day, and I am sure that is true of all of you. I have a hard day and go home looking for peace, looking for relaxation. Whoever it was who called home a haven of rest never had a one year old and a four year old. When I go home and I am looking for rest and relaxation, Barb is strung out because the children have been at her all day. She is looking for rest and relaxation, too. When I come in the door, Heather has a million questions because she is at that age. She is four years old and has a million questions, most of which she already knows the answer to. But she asks questions because that is her way of conversing. She wants me to get her something to drink, or she wants me to get her something to eat. She wants me to read her a story, or she wants me to turn on the television set. She wants it all at once, and she wants it all now.
Drew has just eaten some dog food and is just a mess. He has a cold, his nose is running, and he wants to climb up into my lap and wipe his nose on my shirt. The whole evening goes like that until we can get them into bed and have a moment of peace. Then Heather gets up and wakes up Drew, and it goes on and on. Some evenings are like that, and it is really a trial. It is really a test. Yet I know that those tests only serve to make us strong, that our Lord Jesus molds our character through these tests of life.
When I married Barbara, I made a vow to her. I said, “I, Jim, take you, Barbara, to be my wedded wife. And I do promise and covenant before God and these witnesses to be your loving and faithful husband in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness, and in health as long as we both shall live.” In our life, there have been times of joy and sorrow. But I can look back, and see that the times of sorrow have sometimes been more precious than the times of joy. The Lord has been able to use the times of sorrow more than He has been able to use the times of joy.
Joseph had more sorrow than any of the other sons of Jacob. But out of that grew the beauty of his life and the beauty of his ministry. Someone has said that sorrow widens the human soul, that it takes the darkness of night to expose the brightness of the stars of heaven, that it is only when we come to the end of ourselves that we are able to discover the greatness of God. Sometimes we feel like God has abandoned us, that our Lord Jesus is not with us, but He assures us that He is in the midst of every trial. He says, “I am with you all.” He says, “I will never fail you nor forsake you.” He says, “fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). He never fails us or forsakes us. Do you remember when our Lord Jesus went to Bethany? Lazarus had died. Martha came running out and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11:21).
Sometimes when we are in the midst of a trial, that is how we feel. Lord, if you had been here, this would never have happened. We feel like He has abandoned us. But the Lord said to Martha, “Martha, your brother will rise again. Do you believe that?” I was thinking yesterday that the Lord says the same thing to you and to me when we are in the midst of a trial. He says, “Jim, I will revive you. Do you believe that I will restore you? I will heal your situation.”
Do you remember when the disciples were on the Sea of Galilee? There was a great storm. They were afraid, and Jesus was asleep. They woke him and said, Lord, “Teacher, don’t you care that we perish!?” (Mark 4:38). We feel like that when we are in the midst of a trial, when we are in the midst of a storm of life. We say, “Lord, do You not care?” The Lord Jesus said, “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?” (Mark 4:40). He said, “Peace be still, ” and the sea was calm at the mere command of his voice.
He comes to us, and he says, “Why are you afraid? Why are you anxious? Why are you worried? Have you no faith?” He says, “Peace be still,” and he calms the storms of our life. He does not always do it when we want Him to do it, but He does it in the fullness of time.
As we approach our lives, we would set them up very differently than He does. We would never put a trial in our lives. We like our lives to be comfortable, but He wants to make us a source of comfort. You will never be a source of comfort, you will never be able to help the hurting unless you have hurt yourself. You will never be able to help the grieving unless you have grieved yourself.
I heard this story once about a man who was sitting in his backyard and had nothing to do. He was just enjoying the afternoon. He saw a butterfly that was in a cocoon, and he noticed that it was struggling to come out. He sat there and watched the butterfly struggle. The man watched, and the butterfly struggled and struggled some more. Finally, the man grew impatient. He was tired of seeing the butterfly struggle. He was tired of seeing the butterfly go through all that work. He felt sorry for the butterfly, so he said, “I’ll help it.” He got a pair of scissors and snipped the bottom of the cocoon, and the butterfly fell out. Then he waited for the butterfly to unfold and all of its beauty fly off. But the butterfly did not unfold like it was meant to unfold. It did not attain to the level of beauty that it was meant to attain. It could not fly as it was meant to fly. What the man learned was that it takes the fullness of suffering to attain to the fullness of beauty. He learned that by cutting short that butterflies trials, he had also cut short that butterflies greatness.
Who are we to say that we have had one trial too many in our lives? Who are we to say that we have had too much suffering in our lives? Only God knows how many trials it takes in your life to make you into the beautiful, wonderful person He wants you to be. By the power of His Spirit, when you have received Jesus as Lord of your life, He begins to mold you into His glorious, eternal likeness by every trial you meet in life. Trials only serve to make you strong. My favorite song is that song Through it All written by Andraé Crouch. In that song he says, “I thank God for the mountains. I thank Him for the valleys. I thank Him for the storms He’s brought me through. If I never had a problem, I would not know that He could solve them. I would not know what faith in God could do through it all. I’ve learned to trust in Jesus through it all. I’ve learned to trust in God.”
Shall we pray? Father, You are so good to us, and we thank You, Lord. We thank You for your love that reaches out to us in Christ Jesus. Lord, we thank You for the trials that we experience in life. Lord, we know that You do not cause every trial, but we know that You would use every trial for our betterment. And in that we rejoice. Lord, help us to count it all joy when we are in the midst of a trial. Lord, we want to be like You. We are willing to suffer like You in order that we might be glorified like You. Lord Jesus, make us like Yourself. Thank You for your goodness. In Your precious name we pray. Amen.