Life Trials
We all go through trials. Beginning in the spring of 2020, the world began going through the great shared trial of COVID-19. As I write this in the summer of 2021, we are in the fifth wave of the scourge with no clear end in sight. Why would a loving God put us through all of this? Why can’t He simply take away all of this anxiety, fear and distrust and make the world a place of pure sunshine and unending joy?
What if I told you that Jesus never promised this life to be easy? What if part of the Christian life, any human life, is struggle? God has built struggle into our existence so we can grow closer to God. Our problem is that we look at trials the wrong way. To see trials in the right light, we have to make a paradigm shift in our thinking.
The reason why we must shift our thinking to the way God views it is because we have been operating on a faulty premise. We view trials as an inconvenience, as a rock in the road to our progress, and our inclination is to kick the rock out of the way so we can proceed. God wants us to view trials in an entirely new way. So first we must talk about how we experience trials and what our response to them is.
Trials
First, we must understand that there are two ways we experience trials.
Shared Trials: These are trials that a large group of people experience at the same time. This could be a tornado touching down in your town, mass layoffs at your work, or a virus. In 2020, we shared many trials. COVID is an obvious world-wide trial, but what about the great toilet paper shortage? Or George Floyd’s murder and the subsequent riots? How about an election? An Insurrection at the Capitol. Whether you were physically present or watched these on television, you lived through it. You shared it.
Personal Trials: These are trials which you go through alone. It may be a flat tire on the freeway, a broken heart or the loss of your self-esteem. In 2020, along with all of the shared trials that we experienced together, every person experienced personal situations that challenged them on numerous. In my ministry, there wasn’t a week that went by where people in my group had personal issues through the flurry of shared trials we worked through.
So we go through a lot, and that isn’t news to anyone. But how do we respond to these trials? There are four ways that we typically respond to trials:
Ignore: When a trial comes along, we sometimes pretend it isn’t there. We turn away from it, deny it’s existence, and force it away.
Oppose: When the trial comes, instead of accepting a trial into our life as a viable situation that needs to be tackled, we acknowledge it but fight against it.
Fix it: A trial comes into our life and instead of accepting it in and involving God in it, we turn to our own resources to fix it.
Succumb: A trial enters our life and instead of meeting it head on, we crumble under the pressure of it.
The way we respond to a trial is telling. Which response do we typically fall under? Depending on the situation, we often turn to any of the above as a way to deal with it. But are these correct ways to deal with trials?
To begin this journey, we have to understand God’s intention regarding trials. God wants to give us the opportunity to experience and learn from trials. If you look at the four options again, ask yourself this question: how many of the four allows us to experience the trial? The answer is none. They are all tactics of evasion.
We tend to look at trials as a blockade to the life we want to live. Instead, God wants us to look at trials in a different light. He wants us to make a paradigm shift in our thinking so we can see the benefit of hard times. But how do we shift our thinking?
A paradigm is a set model, a way that we interpret life. There are 5 paradigm shifts that must happen to help shift our thinking to an eternal mindset. The eternal mindset is how God views things. This sort of thinking in no way makes us a god or like God. Instead, it helps us to think along the same line as God. This helps us to understand what God values in regards to trials. When we start thinking eternally, it changes the whole game.
Paradigm Shift 1
Life isn’t about attaining our own comfort, but about growing closer to God
We’ve conducted our life creating a false narrative. The false narrative deals with comfort. When we are focused on attaining our own comfort and a trial comes along, our inclination is to get the problem out of the way as soon as we can. Why? So we can continue in our comfort.
God wants us to experience the trial so we can learn and grow closer to God. If we look at James 1:2-4, we’ll get a better idea of what scripture teaches on this:
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
We’ll be tackling this entire verse through this study, but for the moment let’s concentrate on verse 2. James says to consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds. First, let’s go to the part I skipped – Brothers and Sisters. This verse is intended for Christian believers. In other words, the pagan world isn’t going to get this reasoning. They are going to be lost in the ideal of getting the trial out of the way so they can get on with life. But for Christians, we must understand that trials will be in our life (whenever you face trials) and there is a response (consider it pure joy). That is the experience part of it. If a trial comes into our life and instead of trying to extricate it we bring it in and try to learn from it, knowing the God of the universe is interested in our development, then that is truly a change of our mind and spirit!
Trials are continual; it is how we respond to them that matters. In the book fo Ecclesiastes, King Solomon tackles this subject in a slightly different way:
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8:
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
In this beautiful refrain, Solomon shows us a biblical truth we are sometimes reticent to explore: that there are seasons in our life that are meant to be there, for us to experience and learn from. These seasons are just that, times that are meant to grow and mold us, that must come into our life and pass in time. Trials work in the same way, moments of adversity that we must encounter or we are doomed to repeat in different ways. Trials and seasons are meant to shape us, to teach us, to grow us in specific ways so we can become that person that God wants us to be.
Paradigm Shift 2
God provides for us, especially during the dark times
We’ve conducted our lives believing we are in charge. But in that selfish pride, we forget that God wants to connect with us. So when a trial comes along, we use our own resources to attain what we want. We forget, almost immediately, that a trial isn’t just a way to shape us in a certain situation or mindset, but it is also meant to bring us closer to God. When is a trial, how often do we turn to God right away? We forget that during the dark days of any trial that God will always provide for us.
God wants us to depend on Him during trials; trials are meant for us to connect deeper.
How do we know this is true? Again, let’s go to scripture to understand a little better who God is.
We forget that God will help us
Isaiah 41:13:
For I am the Lord your God
who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.
We forget that God is our caregiver
Psalm 23:1-2
The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters.
We forget that we can do nothing outside our relationship with God
John 15:5
I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Trials exist so we can connect with God in a deeper way. So we can connect with His provision. Se we can build trust and learn to turn to Him during the dark days. Dependence on God during trials is critical.
Paradigm Shift 3
The way we react reveals our trust in God’s provision
Our entire life we’ve developed a way to react to certain situations. Perhaps it is anger, frustration, ridicule or judgment. We’ve taught ourself that this is the correct way to react. The way we react reveals the heart. It also reveals our level of trust in God.
God wants us to react to trials with a deep love and calm spirit; trials are meant for us to deepen our patient endurance.
Our reactions are important. James again talks about this in 1:19-21:
19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.
21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
Our reaction to any situation should be a Christian response, based in the foundation of relationship with Christ. What does James say here?
Quick to listen: This implies that we should first hear people out, digest what we are hearing, assess the situation before jumping into the conversation. Far too often we don’t practice this. Do you ever formulate what you are going to say as someone else is talking? What a great practice it would be for someone to exhaust their position and we take it in humbly, waiting to respond in earnest. This is true listening.
Slow to speak: This implies that whatever we say has gone through careful and thoughtful tumblers inside before any words hit the air.
Slow to become angry: If someone is speaking in opposition to your position, scripture dictates that we slow down the anger. Calm the opposition. Find common ground. Look for ways to quell anger instead of adding it to the world.
Why? Because human anger doesn’t produce the righteousness that God desires. In other words, a reaction that borders on anger isn’t the way God wants us to act. He wants us to react to others with a kind and thoughtful spirit.
How do we get this habit turned around? That’s the next verse: 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
The key to turning around your reaction is to get right with God. The prevalent moral filth is the world dynamic ( what the world desires), but the key to reworking this reactionary thought process is to humbly come back to God, the word planted in you. It has the power to save you, to remove you from the way the world thinks and change your thought patterns to an eternal mindset (the way God thinks).
Back to James 1:2-4:
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Trials are a test of our faith. This testing produces perseverance. Perseverance is termed as patient endurance. Why though, does God want to build patience in us? Why does He want us to experience trials?
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Patient endurance (enduring through trials) helps us to grow in maturity. We end up maturing through trials. We grow spiritually, mentally and emotionally. This is why we must trust God trough a trial.
The way we deal with trials reveal the amount of trust we really have in God in certain areas.
If we Ignore, we aren’t open to correction and growth in God’s plan
If we Oppose, we are in confrontation with God’s plan
If we Fix it, we don’t allow God to work in our life
If we Succumb, we are in denial that God can save us
Trials reveal weak spots in our faith. That’s why God wants us to experience trails. Like a tinkerer, God allows trials into our life to shore up certain aspects of our faith where we need help. We human beings don’t learn through our successes. We learn through adversity.
Paradigm Shift 4
Trials are in our life for our benefit
We’ve lived our life believing that trials are rare, the exception to the rule. They are anomalies our life. But we should view trials as the norm. Life is really about challenge, with small times of comfort. We must learn what God is trying to stabilize in our faith.
James 1:22-25
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
Trials are ultimately beneficial for us. They build us into a stronger and more mature person. Our spiritual center expands, our emotional base strengthens, and we mentally grow stronger. But all of this is thwarted if we don’t learn from the trial. If we refuse the opportunity to learn, thence become like the man who looks in the mirror and immediately forgets what his face looks like. When we do this in regards to trials, God will add another trial into our life that teaches the same topic. Have you ever gone through the same type of trial many times in your life? This is because you haven’t learned the lessons so God keeps refining the challenge. In order to turn this around we must understand that when a trial enters our life we must rise to the challenge and learn from it, because whatever the lesson may be, it is for our benefit.
Paradigm Shift 5
When in trial, go to your first resource
In our life we have constructed a belief that we are in charge. We forget, ignore or oppose God during trial. We disconnect from the source and believe that will somehow lead to success. Prayer (connection), however, is our first resource. Connection with God is essential to get through trials.
James 1:5-8
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
During trials we need to connect with God. We must faithfully communicate our needs and believe the provision. How many times to we pray to God and not really believe in God’s protection? When in trial, prayer is always where we must turn first. If we don’t trust in God to provide, then we shouldn’t expect anything, because our faith (trust) is flimsy.
Paradigm Shift 1
Life isn’t about attaining our own comfort, but about growing closer to God
Paradigm Shift 2
God provides for us, especially during the dark times
Paradigm Shift 3
The way we react reveals our trust in God’s provision
Paradigm Shift 4
Trials are in our life for our benefit
Paradigm Shift 5
When in trial, go to your first resource
If we retrain ourselves in how we deal with trials, we’ll begin to see trials as God intends them: as ways to teach, grow us and develop us into stronger and more mature people.
Questions to ask yourself:
During trials, do I first look to find my comfort?
Do I really believe in God’s provision?
How did I react to trials during the chaos in our world?
Did I gain understanding as the trials continued?
Did I lean toward God or toward the world ideal?
We all go through trials. Beginning in the spring of 2020, the world began going through the great shared trial of COVID-19. As I write this in the summer of 2021, we are in the fifth wave of the scourge with no clear end in sight. Why would a loving God put us through all of this? Why can’t He simply take away all of this anxiety, fear and distrust and make the world a place of pure sunshine and unending joy?
What if I told you that Jesus never promised this life to be easy? What if part of the Christian life, any human life, is struggle? God has built struggle into our existence so we can grow closer to God. Our problem is that we look at trials the wrong way. To see trials in the right light, we have to make a paradigm shift in our thinking.
The reason why we must shift our thinking to the way God views it is because we have been operating on a faulty premise. We view trials as an inconvenience, as a rock in the road to our progress, and our inclination is to kick the rock out of the way so we can proceed. God wants us to view trials in an entirely new way. So first we must talk about how we experience trials and what our response to them is.
Trials
First, we must understand that there are two ways we experience trials.
Shared Trials: These are trials that a large group of people experience at the same time. This could be a tornado touching down in your town, mass layoffs at your work, or a virus. In 2020, we shared many trials. COVID is an obvious world-wide trial, but what about the great toilet paper shortage? Or George Floyd’s murder and the subsequent riots? How about an election? An Insurrection at the Capitol. Whether you were physically present or watched these on television, you lived through it. You shared it.
Personal Trials: These are trials which you go through alone. It may be a flat tire on the freeway, a broken heart or the loss of your self-esteem. In 2020, along with all of the shared trials that we experienced together, every person experienced personal situations that challenged them on numerous. In my ministry, there wasn’t a week that went by where people in my group had personal issues through the flurry of shared trials we worked through.
So we go through a lot, and that isn’t news to anyone. But how do we respond to these trials? There are four ways that we typically respond to trials:
Ignore: When a trial comes along, we sometimes pretend it isn’t there. We turn away from it, deny it’s existence, and force it away.
Oppose: When the trial comes, instead of accepting a trial into our life as a viable situation that needs to be tackled, we acknowledge it but fight against it.
Fix it: A trial comes into our life and instead of accepting it in and involving God in it, we turn to our own resources to fix it.
Succumb: A trial enters our life and instead of meeting it head on, we crumble under the pressure of it.
The way we respond to a trial is telling. Which response do we typically fall under? Depending on the situation, we often turn to any of the above as a way to deal with it. But are these correct ways to deal with trials?
To begin this journey, we have to understand God’s intention regarding trials. God wants to give us the opportunity to experience and learn from trials. If you look at the four options again, ask yourself this question: how many of the four allows us to experience the trial? The answer is none. They are all tactics of evasion.
We tend to look at trials as a blockade to the life we want to live. Instead, God wants us to look at trials in a different light. He wants us to make a paradigm shift in our thinking so we can see the benefit of hard times. But how do we shift our thinking?
A paradigm is a set model, a way that we interpret life. There are 5 paradigm shifts that must happen to help shift our thinking to an eternal mindset. The eternal mindset is how God views things. This sort of thinking in no way makes us a god or like God. Instead, it helps us to think along the same line as God. This helps us to understand what God values in regards to trials. When we start thinking eternally, it changes the whole game.
Paradigm Shift 1
Life isn’t about attaining our own comfort, but about growing closer to God
We’ve conducted our life creating a false narrative. The false narrative deals with comfort. When we are focused on attaining our own comfort and a trial comes along, our inclination is to get the problem out of the way as soon as we can. Why? So we can continue in our comfort.
God wants us to experience the trial so we can learn and grow closer to God. If we look at James 1:2-4, we’ll get a better idea of what scripture teaches on this:
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
We’ll be tackling this entire verse through this study, but for the moment let’s concentrate on verse 2. James says to consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds. First, let’s go to the part I skipped – Brothers and Sisters. This verse is intended for Christian believers. In other words, the pagan world isn’t going to get this reasoning. They are going to be lost in the ideal of getting the trial out of the way so they can get on with life. But for Christians, we must understand that trials will be in our life (whenever you face trials) and there is a response (consider it pure joy). That is the experience part of it. If a trial comes into our life and instead of trying to extricate it we bring it in and try to learn from it, knowing the God of the universe is interested in our development, then that is truly a change of our mind and spirit!
Trials are continual; it is how we respond to them that matters. In the book fo Ecclesiastes, King Solomon tackles this subject in a slightly different way:
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8:
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
In this beautiful refrain, Solomon shows us a biblical truth we are sometimes reticent to explore: that there are seasons in our life that are meant to be there, for us to experience and learn from. These seasons are just that, times that are meant to grow and mold us, that must come into our life and pass in time. Trials work in the same way, moments of adversity that we must encounter or we are doomed to repeat in different ways. Trials and seasons are meant to shape us, to teach us, to grow us in specific ways so we can become that person that God wants us to be.
Paradigm Shift 2
God provides for us, especially during the dark times
We’ve conducted our lives believing we are in charge. But in that selfish pride, we forget that God wants to connect with us. So when a trial comes along, we use our own resources to attain what we want. We forget, almost immediately, that a trial isn’t just a way to shape us in a certain situation or mindset, but it is also meant to bring us closer to God. When is a trial, how often do we turn to God right away? We forget that during the dark days of any trial that God will always provide for us.
God wants us to depend on Him during trials; trials are meant for us to connect deeper.
How do we know this is true? Again, let’s go to scripture to understand a little better who God is.
We forget that God will help us
Isaiah 41:13:
For I am the Lord your God
who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.
We forget that God is our caregiver
Psalm 23:1-2
The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters.
We forget that we can do nothing outside our relationship with God
John 15:5
I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Trials exist so we can connect with God in a deeper way. So we can connect with His provision. Se we can build trust and learn to turn to Him during the dark days. Dependence on God during trials is critical.
Paradigm Shift 3
The way we react reveals our trust in God’s provision
Our entire life we’ve developed a way to react to certain situations. Perhaps it is anger, frustration, ridicule or judgment. We’ve taught ourself that this is the correct way to react. The way we react reveals the heart. It also reveals our level of trust in God.
God wants us to react to trials with a deep love and calm spirit; trials are meant for us to deepen our patient endurance.
Our reactions are important. James again talks about this in 1:19-21:
19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.
21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
Our reaction to any situation should be a Christian response, based in the foundation of relationship with Christ. What does James say here?
Quick to listen: This implies that we should first hear people out, digest what we are hearing, assess the situation before jumping into the conversation. Far too often we don’t practice this. Do you ever formulate what you are going to say as someone else is talking? What a great practice it would be for someone to exhaust their position and we take it in humbly, waiting to respond in earnest. This is true listening.
Slow to speak: This implies that whatever we say has gone through careful and thoughtful tumblers inside before any words hit the air.
Slow to become angry: If someone is speaking in opposition to your position, scripture dictates that we slow down the anger. Calm the opposition. Find common ground. Look for ways to quell anger instead of adding it to the world.
Why? Because human anger doesn’t produce the righteousness that God desires. In other words, a reaction that borders on anger isn’t the way God wants us to act. He wants us to react to others with a kind and thoughtful spirit.
How do we get this habit turned around? That’s the next verse: 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
The key to turning around your reaction is to get right with God. The prevalent moral filth is the world dynamic ( what the world desires), but the key to reworking this reactionary thought process is to humbly come back to God, the word planted in you. It has the power to save you, to remove you from the way the world thinks and change your thought patterns to an eternal mindset (the way God thinks).
Back to James 1:2-4:
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Trials are a test of our faith. This testing produces perseverance. Perseverance is termed as patient endurance. Why though, does God want to build patience in us? Why does He want us to experience trials?
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Patient endurance (enduring through trials) helps us to grow in maturity. We end up maturing through trials. We grow spiritually, mentally and emotionally. This is why we must trust God trough a trial.
The way we deal with trials reveal the amount of trust we really have in God in certain areas.
If we Ignore, we aren’t open to correction and growth in God’s plan
If we Oppose, we are in confrontation with God’s plan
If we Fix it, we don’t allow God to work in our life
If we Succumb, we are in denial that God can save us
Trials reveal weak spots in our faith. That’s why God wants us to experience trails. Like a tinkerer, God allows trials into our life to shore up certain aspects of our faith where we need help. We human beings don’t learn through our successes. We learn through adversity.
Paradigm Shift 4
Trials are in our life for our benefit
We’ve lived our life believing that trials are rare, the exception to the rule. They are anomalies our life. But we should view trials as the norm. Life is really about challenge, with small times of comfort. We must learn what God is trying to stabilize in our faith.
James 1:22-25
22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
Trials are ultimately beneficial for us. They build us into a stronger and more mature person. Our spiritual center expands, our emotional base strengthens, and we mentally grow stronger. But all of this is thwarted if we don’t learn from the trial. If we refuse the opportunity to learn, thence become like the man who looks in the mirror and immediately forgets what his face looks like. When we do this in regards to trials, God will add another trial into our life that teaches the same topic. Have you ever gone through the same type of trial many times in your life? This is because you haven’t learned the lessons so God keeps refining the challenge. In order to turn this around we must understand that when a trial enters our life we must rise to the challenge and learn from it, because whatever the lesson may be, it is for our benefit.
Paradigm Shift 5
When in trial, go to your first resource
In our life we have constructed a belief that we are in charge. We forget, ignore or oppose God during trial. We disconnect from the source and believe that will somehow lead to success. Prayer (connection), however, is our first resource. Connection with God is essential to get through trials.
James 1:5-8
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
During trials we need to connect with God. We must faithfully communicate our needs and believe the provision. How many times to we pray to God and not really believe in God’s protection? When in trial, prayer is always where we must turn first. If we don’t trust in God to provide, then we shouldn’t expect anything, because our faith (trust) is flimsy.
Paradigm Shift 1
Life isn’t about attaining our own comfort, but about growing closer to God
Paradigm Shift 2
God provides for us, especially during the dark times
Paradigm Shift 3
The way we react reveals our trust in God’s provision
Paradigm Shift 4
Trials are in our life for our benefit
Paradigm Shift 5
When in trial, go to your first resource
If we retrain ourselves in how we deal with trials, we’ll begin to see trials as God intends them: as ways to teach, grow us and develop us into stronger and more mature people.
Questions to ask yourself:
During trials, do I first look to find my comfort?
Do I really believe in God’s provision?
How did I react to trials during the chaos in our world?
Did I gain understanding as the trials continued?
Did I lean toward God or toward the world ideal?