Psa 66:10 For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.
FAITH has its trials, as well as its temptations. Affliction is a trial of faith; sorrow in any of its forms is a trial of faith; the delay of mercy; the promise unfulfilled; the prayer unanswered; or, for that matter, any assault on the believer's faith,and the foundation upon which it rests are all trials of faith, commissioned, or allowed, by God to place the gold in the crucible, and the wheat in the sieve, that both may be purified and tried.
However, we must always remember and recognise, that these trials were not given to destroy the man, they are to be a light for our lives, and a witness to and for the grace He has cast and developed within our hearts. For the truth is, my friends, that
it is only true grace that is really tried. No one puts mere dross into his furnace, or mere chaff into his sieve. All his toils and pains-taking would go for nothing, for it would come forth in its nature unaltered and unchanged—the dross would still be dross, and the chaff would still be chaff. The truth of His Word tells us plainly, that it is only genuine grace that the Lord tries --- and it is only those called out and washed in the blood, that satan tempts and tries to lead astray; for he already has all the rest tightly in his hands. It is the wheat, and not the tares, that is made to pass through the fiery trial. Thus do afflictions and trying dispensations prove a man's faith. When there is nothing but tinsel in a profession of belief, the fire will consume it; when there is nothing but chaff, the wind will scatter it. The furnace of temptation and the flail of affliction often prove a man's faith; of what sort it is. This is why so many professing believers, who have not the root of our Lord in themselves, only endure for a little while; and are quickly offended and fall away when tribulation or persecution arises because of our Lord,and His Words.
But this oppression sometimes goes beyond merely assaulting our faith; and attempts to actually consume it:
Not only is a child of God assailed both because of his faith, and through his faith; but there are times when that faith itself may flicker and fluctuate. Is this surprising? No, my friends, it should not be. For the truth is that nothing but the Spirit of God that dwells within His grace; keeps, and maintains it. Yet our human frailties and outright failures, give our faith a unique texture and vibrancy with its own inevitable ebb and flow, as the cares of life press in on us. Not sure what I mean, or what I'm talking about? Look at Abraham—on the hand, in the strength of faith offering sacrifice to Melchizedec, or in making formal covenant with Almighty God,and on another hand in his weakness of faith while denying his wife before pharoah! Look at David—in the strength of faith slaying Goliath, and the writings of the Psalms; and in the weakness of faith the taking of Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, Uraiah! Look at Job—in the strength of faith justifying God in the severest of His dealings, and in the weakness of faith cursing the day that He was born! Look at Peter—in the strength of faith proclaiming Yeshua's divinity as the living Messiah, and in the weakness of faith on the night when he denied our Lord 3 times before the fire.! Oh my friends, the wonder of wonders is that all grace and faith is not utterly scattered, consumed, and annihilated! Nothing but the power of God and its own incorruptible and imperishable nature, can possibly preserve it. This, my friends is the lesson we are to learn as we pass this way of life: that God is All---He supplies all---He tries all and secures all that is His and is called by His name---and that He, AND HE ALONE, preserves and defends all. And that He who is all, must consume all, in order to fill all. The fires and the trials are to draw us to Him, to purify and strehgthen us before Him, and to equip us for life in His Kingdom.
My friends our Lord told us, in truth, that if we were His that we would suffer in this world; and so we do----but But He also told us to rejoice, because the victory is won; In Him, and in Him only
The storms brew,
Around His redeemed;
Yet what is that to him?
For after it has passed:
He is not only alive,
But he is standing!
It has neither killed,
Nor shaken him,
His feet are as firm,
As ever they were:
In praise of Him,
Who does not deliver
By halves.
Psa 66:8 O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard:
Psa 66:9 Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved.
Psa 66:10 For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.
Psa 66:11 Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst affliction upon our loins.
Psa 66:12 Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.
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