Consider the Trials We Can Face- Heb 12

Consider Trials We Can Face - Hebrews Chapters 10-12

Because of sin in the world, we face hard things. Because of sin in our lives or in the lives of those that we are close to, we can go through difficult times. Not to say that every “sin,” appearance of sin is a trial, or that every hardship is trial of our own doing. We covered in the last blog post that trials can indeed be from outside opposition, even Satanic influence.

It should also be acknowledged that sometimes, when we aren’t in active sin, God can allow “bad things”, hard things to happen to us in life.

Why? Why would a God that is good allow bad things to happen to people who try to love God and obey the Bible? It is a question that has been asked through the ages, and a question that will undoubtedly be asked again from a soul that is searching and seeking answers in times of pain and uncertainty.

God is so good to give us answers to the questions we ask in the Bible!

Members of the early church were asking such questions, and the writer of Hebrews took some time to answer those questions for them then, and in turn for us today.

The members of this church were former Jews, and when they accepted Jesus Christ as the Messiah and the Savior that they were looking for, they suffered persecution. They suffered pain and discomfort at the hands of those that they loved because they chose to accept Christ’s free gift of salvation and to even aid the writer of Hebrews himself.

Hebrews 10:32 says,
“But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions;”

The following verses speak of how they took this suffering and persecution with joy and happiness because they knew that the suffering was not forever, but that forever in Heaven would be worth the struggle on this earth.

“For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing yourselves that ye have in heaven better and an enduring substance. Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For yet a little while and he that shall come will come, and not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” (Hebrews 10:34–39)

What does all that mean? God, through the writer of Hebrews, wanted to remind these people asking questions of why they would be going through a difficult time of this: Don’t lose hope! This time in life was hard, but they were not living on the promise of this moment; they were living on the promise of forever—forever in Heaven!

As the writer goes on to remind them of examples of people who lived for the promise of Heaven, he also reminds the early believers that these examples of faith did not shrink back or become timid in the light of loss or pain. But the people that the author lists in chapter 11 of Hebrews were bold and confident in the promise of God and who God was.

This faith (the thing that they could not fully see the end of) is what enabled them to go through their lives living for God, even if they did not see the fulfillment of the promise, as was in the life of Abram, later known as Abraham.

God told Abram he would be the father of many, more than the stars in the sky, more than the sand by the sea… yet we don’t know that he even saw his grandsons Jacob and Esau. God told him that he would own the land that he sojourned in, yet the only land he owned personally was his burial plot.

Before Abram, “by faith” Noah built an ark, even though he had never seen rain. The rest of Hebrews 11 lists accounts of people who chose to obey God in faith regardless of personal comfort—and God was faithful each and every time—faithful to His word, faithful to His character, faithful as God JEHOVAH.

In Hebrews 12:5–13, the writer quotes some Old Testament verses found in Proverbs 3:11–12:

“My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD: neither be weary of his correction.”

Along with quoting these verses, the writer of Hebrews reminds those that he is writing to that there is a different kind of trial, one that is allowed with the same amount of love as the first we have talked through above.

Sometimes, not always, God allows trials in someone’s life because they are in disobedience to God’s commands, and just like a loving parent would correct a child that is not obeying their parents’ voice or instruction, one can face trials because they are not walking with God.

We have not completely answered the question of “why.” Why do we have to go through trials? Why do we have to suffer?

The believers of the first-century church, just like us, struggled or can be presented with two types of trials during life on earth:

1. Doing right and trials come: We can be tempted to question, does God care?

2. Doing wrong and trials come: One can expect a trial, but unlike our sinful thinking, God does not allow a trial that comes from wrongdoing to stem from His anger. Our God is not vindictive.

In BOTH types of trials, God is trying to help His child to GROW—this is the answer to “why trials.”

We can see this from Hebrews 12:11:

“Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”

There are some additional things to recognize about trials from this verse. With the understanding that God is good, and that He desires for those He loves to grow in Him, we can be helped through any difficulty that we face.

1. Trials are hard, not fun! We are earthly and fleshly beings who like to be happy and entertained and have fun! God designed us to experience a wide range of emotions and feelings. He wants us to be happy, but more than He wants us to be happy, He wants us to be holy.

2. Instead of being an individual that only cries for deliverance from a trial, He desires that we cry for dependence through the trial.

To cry for dependence can look different in different situations, but it will always be greatly helped by one of the last words in Hebrews 12:11: “exercised.”

The word exercised carries the idea of an individual who was an athlete in the Olympic games and was training.

Training what? Training what God wants to grow in us, produce in us, the fruits of the Spirit, the same fruit that is mentioned in Philippians 4, Ephesians, and Colossians—He wants to produce that in you. It’s not something that we can produce in ourselves but is what grows out of us as we are dependent upon Him.

If God were to take away all our trials and toil, there would be no growth for us as we journey through this world, waiting for the splendor of Heaven. The temporary pain from a trial on earth can bring lasting results in Heaven. Or fast results can bring lasting pain. The choice in what we allow for God to do in our lives is up to us.

Just as in salvation, our loving and holy God does not push Himself onto us, but our choice can limit what He can do with us here on earth and in ways will limit the sweetest parts of Heaven.

As believers, God is our Father, who like our earthly fathers can allow circumstances in the lives of their children to help them—so does God.

“Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.” Hebrews 12:10

God chastens us for our profit, for our good, and for His glory. That is a good God.

Choose in the next trial or the current trial you face—choose to let it grow you. Our God is good. He has a plan.

Cry out to God in your trial—express all that you are feeling in the moment. Acknowledge those feelings that God has allowed within the scope of all that we can feel as human beings. He is big enough to handle them.

THEN align your feelings and thoughts with the Word He has given us. Allow the Holy Spirit to guide and correct any error that is found.

Cry out to Him for dependence—don’t cry for deliverance. Let your trial exercise you; don’t let it destroy you. The promise of Heaven and all that awaits in that promise is worth it.

Hebrews 12:11
“Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”