The Testing of a Believer’s Faith

22 Jun 2024 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Job 23:10.       But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

And on this lazy-day Saturday, the second official day of summer, the weather is sunny and fairly cool, compared with earlier this week, when summer came in like a mighty lion with temperatures in the constant thirties. Let’s hope that it will stay in the mid-twenties for a while now. The heat’s nice, much preferable to the cold, but we do need a modicum of circumspection, for too much of anything is no good. (smile) 

Now, let’s get serious and offer up our Lazy-Day Saturday Morning Prayer in all sincerity. As one voice:  ‘Lord, I want to be with You now. Please slow my thoughts and quiet my soul. Let my muscles relax, my breath deepen. You are here with me – Your peace and LOVE are present. I marvel to think You can’t be contained, that Your LOVE both surrounds and fills me. Thank You for this tenderness, Lord. I praise You for Your unceasing nearness. Increase my awareness of You today, that I may know You all the more. Amen!’ 

And because the motives of our hearts were right, we can now feel the Lord’s presence, His LOVE and peace truly hovering around us in even more abundance than before. And I like this prayer because it’s one of those that touch the cockles of God’s heart. You’re sincerely asking for more of Him, and He will never refuse such a prayer, since it’s His greatest desire for His human creation to sincerely seek Him with all their hearts, minds, souls and bodies. 

So, as we promised yesterday, if the Lord spared life today, we would continue looking at some scriptures that speak to the testing of our faith. And all God’s children said a grateful: ‘Thank You Lord for allowing us to see another day on your great earth!’ 

Let’s begin then with this interesting scripture from Isaiah re God’s deferred anger. ‘For my name’s sake, will I defer (delay) my anger, and for my praise will I refrain (restrain) for thee, that I cut thee not off (destroy you). Behold, I have refined thee, but not with (as) silver; I have chosen (tested) thee in the furnace of affliction. For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted (profaned)? and I will not give my glory unto another.’ (Is. 48:9-11) 

Yes friends, for the Lord’s own sake, that we do not profane His holy name, He refines us in the fires of affliction. And those fires are never very nice, but they do serve to refine us, grow us in spiritual maturity, and keep us on the right path. Now, hear these awesome words of the psalmist. 

‘O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard: Which holdeth our soul in life (among the living), and suffereth not our feet to be moved (slip). For thou, O God, hast proved (tested) us: thou hast tried (refined) us, as silver is tried. Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst affliction upon our loins. Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy (an abundant) place.’ (Ps. 66:8-12) 

Yuh see that mih bredrin, though the Lord tries and afflicts us, it’s always for our own good, for our benefit. He brings us out of the afflictions in a better place than when we went in. Then there’s this interesting scripture from Bruh Paul in 1 Corinthians. ‘According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 

Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble (straw); Every man’s work shall be made manifest (become evident); for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try (test) every man’s work of what sort it is. If a man’s work abide (endures) which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved: yet so as by (through) fire.’ (1 Cor. 3:10-15) 

Oh my people, come the judgement day, even our works will be tested to see how they held up to Christ’s service. And if they don’t survive the fire, because they are built on hay, wood or straw, then we will lose rewards, but not our salvation. For as the scholars explain: ‘The stress in this entire passage is not on a person’s relationship to Christ, but on service to Christ.’ 

Meanwhile, Job in his great trial said it thus: ‘Behold, I go forward, but he (God) is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him. On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself (turns) on the right hand, that I cannot see him: But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.’ (Job 23:8-10) 

Job’s friends thought that his sins caused his downfall, that he was filled with rubbish, but he maintained that God knew when He tested him, pure gold would come out of the fires of his affliction. Can we be that sure of our situations? Who knows? But we’ve got to do our best to pass through the fires refined as pure gold. 

Now here’s this last scripture, another famous one, this from Peter, where, writing about the incorruptible inheritance reserved in heaven for us, says: ‘Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness (distressed) through manifold temptations: That the trial (genuineness) of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried (tested) with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing (revelation) of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye LOVE; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.’ (1 Pet. 1:6-9) 

And the scholars offer these explanations on those verses: ‘The problem of salvation looks to the present. Earthly trials constitute  a problem of our salvation, but they are only for a season, or temporary. Manifold temptations means diversified trials. True faith cannot be destroyed though God is in the process of refining faith through our trials.’ 

Oh my fellow saints, living for Christ seems like a tough life, and it sometimes truly is, but let’s remember that the rewards of putting Christ first are well worth the trials and testings we go through in this evil and ungodly world. The long and short of the story is we know our salvation is assured through God’s gift of grace, and if we live the way Christ desires, great will be our rewards in heaven! Much LOVE!

…building on the solid foundation of Christ…is the wise earthly way to go…

Hear our podcast at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/randy-obrien

Today’s Scrip-Bit 9 July 2020 Isaiah 30:21.

09 Jul 2020 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Isaiah 30:21.     ​And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right, and when ye turn to the left.
 

Oh precious people, our enemy the devil is still out there roaring like a false lion with his toothless gums, and sadly, many of us are listening to him, and becoming anxious and afraid about all that’s currently going down. But I’m here to tell us on this sunny Thursday morning that all he has is bark and NO bite! The only way he can really harm us is if we give him that power. But please remember Jesus’ most often used words, were ‘FEAR NOT!’ And as His followers that’s what is expected of us. 

And we all know it’s harder said than done, so we need some encouragement, and today we’re going to turn to the best place for help, the Lord God Almighty – where else eh? Isaiah appealed to his people Israel to turn to the God of their forefathers after they had stopped relying on Him and were turning to Egypt for help. Hear these words re the futility of relying on anyone else but the Lord, and please do not let them fall on deaf ears. 

‘Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering (devise plans, weave a web), but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin: That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth (my advice); to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion (humiliation). (Is. 30:1-3)

 Oh friends, rather unwisely, that is the very same thing we have done. We have turned to various other gods and idols and seek advice from everywhere else except from the Lord God Jehovah. To the point that we are trying to get rid of Him from the society He created.  What utter foolishness! Do you think He’ll allow us to just throw Him out without a fight? I guess so, otherwise we wouldn’t be trying to win an unwinnable battle. It resembles Satan’s futile efforts to defeat Jesus over the battle for hell, death and the grave! Jesus came out victorious with the keys to all of Satan’s dominions! And so will the Lord God Jehovah, despite our best efforts to annihilate Him from our society; His creation! 

It’s also obvious that we don’t believe what He says. Remember He says in the Ten Commandments that He is a jealous God. (Ex. 20:5) And the same thing is mentioned all through the Old Testament. Remember when He was heartbroken because his special people Israel desired a human king like all the other nations? (1 Sam. 8) Yes friends, the Lord made us for Himself; to be His people, to fellowship with Him, for Him to be our God, and anytime we desire to change that, we WILL get some kind of opposition from Him. 

Thus says He: ‘I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.’ (Is. 42:8) That should tell us ALL we need to know, but it obviously doesn’t. So we keep on trying to uproot God from our midst and are now suffering serious adversity, the consequences of our ungodly behaviour, like Israel did back then. And like Isaiah did, so am I appealing to us to turn back to Him in these rough and unprecedented times, for He is indeed the ONLY ONE who can get us out of this earthly hell in which we’re now totally ensconced. 

Hear these words: ‘And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers. And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right, and when ye turn to the left.’ (Is. 30:20-21) Oh my people, are we hearing the Holy Spirit whispering in our souls, actively seeking to show us the right way? That’s what He’s there for. And I know He’s sincerely doing His thing, but apparently we’re not listening, for we’re going in the wrong direction; away from God, rather than towards Him. 

Oh friends, hear this other verse from just before nuh. ‘And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgement (justice): blessed are all they that wait for him.’ (Is. 30:18) 

And the scholars offer these explanations. ‘30:18-33. Because God is gracious and has been willing to wait for His people to return to Him, He will certainly bless those who wait for Him. “Waiting” is a confident and dependent trust in God. The reference to the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction shows that God teaches us lessons through circumstances when we will not listen to our teachers who call us to walk in the way (i.e. the way of God).’ 

Oh my people, there’s absolutely no doubt that our great and merciful God is trying to teach us some very useful lessons right now in these times of much sickness and strife! But are we conscious of that though? And if we are, are we learning anything from it? For all of our sakes, and those of our descendants, I do hope so, otherwise we’ll pay a great price for our disobedience and utter disregard for the Lord, His Holy Word and righteous desires for our lives. 

But for those of us who are aware, and sincerely trying to learn those lessons, let’s go home now declaring (awright!!!) our Thursday Blessings which the Lord has so generously and graciously bestowed upon us to help those who need it. So in strong belief, as one voice: ‘I declare that I am blessed with God’s supernatural wisdom and receive clear direction for my life! I declare today that I am blessed with creativity, courage, talent and abundance! I am blessed with a strong will, self-control and self-discipline! 

I am blessed with a great family, good friends, good health, faith, favour and fulfillment! I am blessed with success, supernatural strength, promotion and divine protection! I am blessed with a compassionate heart and a positive outlook on life! I declare that any curse or negative word that’s ever been spoken over me is broken right now in the name of Jesus! I declare that everything I put my hands to will prosper and succeed! I declare it today and everyday! Amen!’ 

And now, let’s go and share them very generously, for this is the time; that of sickness and strife,  for which we were made and so blessed! Much LOVE!

…the earth is the Lord’s…and the fullness thereof…