It's hard to worship God through trials. It takes discipline and a strong faith to trust God when pain increases, a willingness to believe that these trials will lead us home, as long as we stay committed. When our life seems to be spiraling out of control, it can be hard to let God take over and guide our lives, or take comfort in the knowledge that God has a plan and this trial is a part of his providence. But there is still a certain joy from the realization after the fact, when the picture becomes clear, that everything worked in accordance to His will.
But it is easy to praise God when everything is going well. Maintaining a relationship with God through reading the Scriptures, coming to Him in prayer, and fellowshipping with His church can become so much more effortless when life is going smoothly. But trials are how we grow, suffering builds perseverance. Challenges bring strength when we learn to overcome them by surrendering to Christ. Still, it is hard to stay strong in our walk when things go wrong (though, admittedly, since we really don't know what is right for us and God has a perfect plan, life can never really go wrong).
Life can never be easy all the time. It's inevitable: what goes up must go down. Trials will come; this is guaranteed in Scripture. However, we need to be prepared, because these trials test the faith we build in the easy times. This is why we should never be too comfortable. We should never let our spiritual walk falter when everything seems to be fine, but this can be our tendency. Maybe we believe that we are responsible for our ideal life and we don't need God anymore, or maybe we feel the Holy Spirit's presence so strong that we start to lose focus on the responsibilities that maintain our spiritual growth. We may be feeling good because we are in a comfortable place, and this may not be where God wants us. He may allow us to hurt as a way to turn us in the right direction. Still, it is during the quiet moments that we need to actively pursue a spiritual maturity, because the troubles will come.
And when they do, we need a foundation of faith to help us through.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ - 1 Peter 1:3-7 (ESV)
This has been a struggle in my life. I have even been called "spiritually inconsistent," referring to my roller coaster spiritual life. I constantly have highs and lows in life, many fluctuating throughout the coarse of days, and, unfortunately, I often let this cycle correlate with my spiritual state. When I feel good, I feel spiritually strong, but this inevitably ends in regrets when the downward fall leads away from God. In 2007, when I was striving to reach spiritual maturity as a means to play worship with the group at my old church, I made a lot of positive strides, but I fell far later in that year. This led to the question of whether all that growth was wasted or if they still remained in my life. From this, I wrote a song called "Now That I'm Here", where I addressed the personal dilemma of maintaining the strength I built in the good times (the day) during the bad times (the night). The conclusion I came to is that the calm is the time to build up our spiritual foundations, so that the storm won't blow us away.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil . . . take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. - Ephesians 6:10-11,13
So when I look at my life, and when everything seems to be going well, I look ahead and remind myself that things will get worse. If I don't, I can be caught off guard by the inevitable pain. It is during the quiet moments that we need to be prepared, because when life grows hectic, it is difficult to maintain a spiritual course. When an army goes out to fight, do they just go out to battle haphazardly, or do they lay out plans and develop strategies? Of course, it would be the latter. So when things are good, hold fast to God's Word and His Truth, instill it in your very being, so it can keep you strong during the trials. Put on the armor of God and never let your guard down (Ephesians 6:10-20). Without these tests, how can we know where we stand? Adversity is necessary, so we must be prepared.
Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. - James 1:12
When the storm is passed, we can look back and see how God worked through those trials and praise Him for His perfect plan for our lives. Hopefully, the experience will make us stronger and even more spiritually prepared for the next storm.
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. - Romans 5:3-5
Worship God in the good times, worship Him in the bad, and when we look back, we can worship God for taking the bad times and working them for His good. Always remember that life will get hard and never lose sight of that. We cannot become complacent when things are well, or we might be lazy and caught off guard by hardships. Strengthen your faith and know a test will come. It is through these trials that we can see how greatly God can move in our lives.
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 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 1:2-4
Our Challenge For Worship
Do we worship God only in the good times and then turn our backs when life doesn't go our way? Are we failing to fully prepare ourselves for the spiritual battle ahead by growing too comfortable? Let us continually build a relationship with God and not lose sight of Him during the painful moments. Let us always remember that God's great plan will prevail in our life.
No comments:
Post a Comment