The Uses of Trial

The Uses of Trial

Affliction occupies a large place in the economy of salvation, for though suffering is the result of sin, God takes hold of it and transmutes it into one of the richest blessings to His own people. Happy the Christian who is able to trust in the goodness which chastens and cleaves to the hand that smites.

It may help us, however, to “endure chastening” if we consider two or three of the gracious ends, or uses of our trials.

1) Trial reveals us to God

There is a sense, doubtless, in which trial reveals us to God. Perhaps someone may object, and say, no, no; we need nothing to make manifest to God what we are; He understands us perfectly. He knows what is in man and needs not anything to tell Him. True! and yet He says of Abraham, “Now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” And to the Israelites. “And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.” Now God knew that Abraham feared Him, and He also knew how far Israel would keep His commandments, but He did not know as a matter of actual fact, until the fact transpired. He must have the latent principle developed in action, before he could know it as action.

God did not have any doubts about Abraham’s love, but He desired a practical manifestation of it towards Himself, or to know it in action. The Divine love is like all other love in this respect; it delights in practical proof of love in return, nor will it be satisfied without it. Remember also that in nothing is love made so manifest as in willing, cheerful suffering for the sake of its object. It is easy, nay, joyful in labour, but patient, cheerful suffering requires a deeper love, a more perfect self-abandonment. “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”

“We glory in tribulations also.”

2) Trial also reveals us to ourselves

How many who have received the Word with joy and for a while have believed, in time of temptation, have fallen away? There is no surer touchstone test for the Christian as to the state of his heart than the way in which he receives affliction. How often, when all has appeared prosperous and peaceful, and the child of God has been congratulating himself on spiritual growth and increased power over inward corruption, has some fiery trial overtaken him, which, instead of being met with perfect submission and cheerful acquiescence, has produced sudden confusion, dismay, and perhaps rebellion, revealing to him that his heart was far from that state of Divine conformity which he had hoped and supposed.

Thus, the Christian often suffers more from a consciousness of insubordination under affliction than from the affliction itself.

Dear reader, how is it with you in this respect? When trials overtake you, are you able to say “It is the Lord. Let Him do what seems good to Him,” and “I know that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.” Are you able to realise that “whom the Lord loves He chastens,” and that these light afflictions are working a future increase of glory? If so, happy are you. This is the best of all evidence to yourself that the Divine Spirit is working in you to will and to do of your Father’s good pleasure. This fruit does not grow on the corrupt soil of unregenerate nature; it springs only from a heart renewed by the Holy Spirit and baptized into fellowship with Christ in His sufferings. But is it otherwise with you? Does your heart chafe, fret, and rebel? Are you saying, “All these things are against me?”

If so, this is proof that the work of grace is at a low ebb in your soul, that your faith is weak, and your spiritual perceptions dim. Cry mightily unto God for a revival of His work in your heart! He sends the cross to brighten the crown. Nothing is so hard as our heart; and as they place copper in aqua fortis acid before they begin to engrave it, so the Lord usually prepares us by the searching, softening discipline of affliction for making a deep lasting impression upon our hearts.

3) Trials reveal us to the world

As the greatest manifestation of God to the world was by suffering, so the most influential revelation of His people to the world has been by suffering. The blood of martyrs has ever been the seed of the Church. The patience, meekness, firmness, and happiness of God’s people in circumstances of suffering, persecution, and death, have paved the way for the Gospel in almost all lands. The exhibition of the meek and loving spirit of Christianity under suffering has doubtless won thousands of hearts to its Divine Author, and tamed and awed many a savage persecutor, besides Saul of Tarsus. When men see their fellowmen enduring with patience and meekness, what they know would fill themselves with hatred, anger, and revenge, they naturally conclude that there must be a different spirit in them. When they see Christians suffering the loss of all things, and cheerfully resigning themselves to bonds, imprisonment, and death, they cannot help feeling that they have sources of strength and springs of consolation all unknown to themselves.

Patient suffering, cheerful acquiescence in affliction and anguish, mental or physical, is the most convincing proof of the Divine in man which it is possible for humanity to give. “Truly this was the Son of God,” said those who stood by the cross when they saw how He suffered. And how many who have been thoroughly sceptical as to the professions of their converted kindred, and have most bitterly persecuted them, and withstood every argument and entreaty advanced in health and activity; have yielded almost without a word before the patience and peace with which the billows of suffering and death have been braved.

It was through trials and sufferings that Abraham and Job glorified God. It was in the fiery furnace that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego won such glory to the God of Israel, that even a heathen king proclaimed His majesty and dominion and commanded his subjects to worship Him who could deliver after this manner. It was in the furnace of persecution that Stephen, Peter, James, John and Paul proved the divinity of their characters and the genuineness of their faith. Without suffering the world could never have known the strength of their faith, the fervency of their love, or the purity of their lives.

When an Apostle would present to us the mightiest achievements of faith, and the most wonderful exhibitions of the power of Divine grace, he refers us not so much to the mighty deeds of God’s people, as to their cheerful and triumphant sufferings (Heb. 11).

Dear reader, how are your afflictions revealing you to those around you? Are you adding your testimony to that of the cloud of witnesses who have gone before, to the sufficiency of Divine grace to sustain and comfort in the hour of sorrow and suffering? Is your patient endurance saying to those who are watching you, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me?”