We are told to ‘consider’, tests and challenges and trials!!! Who would ‘consider’ that? Doesn’t mean it isn’t a good thing though. But… what do we get from doing this? How do we view tests, challenges, and trials? Unfair? How are we to ‘consider’?
“Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.
If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.” [James 1:2-8. MSG]
The Message Bible is a kinda ‘in your face’ translation! And let’s face it… sometimes we need ‘in our faces’ to catch our attention. ‘Consider it a sheer gift’ and ‘Consider it all joy’ don’t really give us the same interpretation. Can/Will we consider it a gift or all joy when we face those trials and tests and challenges? Probably not.
Do you remember the scripture:
“I count everything as loss compared to the priceless privilege and supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord [and of growing more deeply and thoroughly acquainted with Him—a joy unequaled]. For His sake I have lost everything, and I consider it all garbage, so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him [believing and relying on Him], not having any righteousness of my own derived from [my obedience to] the Law and its rituals, but [possessing] that [genuine righteousness] which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. And this, so that I may know Him [experientially, becoming more thoroughly acquainted with Him, understanding the remarkable wonders of His Person more completely] and [in that same way experience] the power of His resurrection [which overflows and is active in believers], and [that I may share] the fellowship of His sufferings, by being continually conformed [inwardly into His likeness even] to His death [dying as He did]; so that I may attain to the resurrection [that will raise me] from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it [this goal of being Christlike] or have already been made perfect, but I actively press on so that I may take hold of that [perfection] for which Christ Jesus took hold of me and made me His own.” [Philippians 3:8-12 AMP]
Those 5 verses set forth part of our trials, challenges, and tests. The latter 2 do come from the Lord. The trials (I believe) are either of our own making or ‘thorns in the flesh, or attacks from the devil. All 3?) I believe the point is that as Christians, when we accept the free gift of salvation from the Lord, we aren’t going to be free of all of the constrains of a fallen world. Actually, we now have a target on our backs. But with our visibility we can become the conquerors that the Word talks about. [Romans 8:37]
The word we all seem to stumble over is found in verse 10 (Philippians): that I may share] the fellowship of His sufferings. But ‘sufferings’ is rarely defined so our active imaginations go to work. Why would anyone want to join in the Lord’s sufferings… didn’t He say He came to bring life more abundantly!??? However, stop long enough to define words. What, for you (because yours may differ from mine), defines ‘sufferings’ – do you know or is it you know if you are experiencing this? For example: is betrayal suffering? How about denial? Do we use the word ‘unfair’ when applied to our own suffering? We should be aware of when we cause suffering for others – our sharp words, our ignoring are only 2 examples of the types of suffering we inflict.
I suspect we rarely use our ‘simple’ hurts as examples of the Lord’s sufferings. I also suspect that we look to the cross as the ultimate suffering – and yes, physically it was. But never look at only the physical. I believe the greatest suffering was the separation between Father and Son that had to take place in order to save us.
I believe that none of us really understands those verses by Paul in Philippians. To me it represent the total and complete ‘sell out’ Paul was willing to endure because of the magnitude of the prize, what he would gain. Will we?
