Don't Call Every Trial "A Test of Faith"

Don't call every trial a test of faith.  Many trials are corrective punishments intended to turn us from our sins and bring us to repentance.  Maybe most trials are corrections.

To say, when we are in a trial, this is a test of faith, implies we are not being corrected for our faults.  We are righteous, God is just testing our faith.  We don't need to repent.  God is not punishing us.

And yet, we may be sinning, we may need to repent, and God may be sending us this trial as a correction and a punishment to wake us up, to make us realize we are wrong, and to turn us from our fault and lead us to repent.  He may be sending us a trial to humble us and make us receptive to admitting we are wrong and need to change.

Our response, in such a case, should not just be to "hold fast" to the way we are but to examine ourselves and see if we are doing something wrong, even some sin we are not aware of, something we are doing that is sinful but we don't know it, or, because of pride and vanity, won't admit it to ourselves and repent.

The Bible is full of trials that come upon people as correction or punishment for sin, much more than some cases that are just tests of faith for the righteous.



Do You Have More Faith in Yourself than in God?


Suppose you are going through a trial.  You think God is testing your faith.  You are determined to trust God through the trial.

Could this indicate that your faith is in yourself more than God?

Why?

Does it occur to you that God is not so much testing as correcting you?

Does it occur to you that you might be sinning against God - doing something that is wrong or refusing to do what God commands - and God is punishing you to get your attention and get you to change - to repent and stop sinning?

But you say, I am not sinning.  I am not doing anything wrong.  God must just be testing my faith to see if I will trust Him through this trial.  I am innocent.

But how do you know?  Do you know yourself that well?  "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9).

What was Job's problem?  Did he always see his own faults? (Job 27:2-6, Job 29:14-16, Job 32:1-2, Job 33:8-12, Job 34:5-6, Job 35:1-2, Job 42:1-6).

Do you have faith in yourself that you are not sinning?  Do you have faith in yourself that you have no need of correction?  Do you have faith that God is not trying to correct you - to get you to change course and take a different path?  Do you have faith in yourself that you are Philadelphian (but without the open door) and only need to "hold fast" to the way you are and the things you believe?  Do you have faith you are Philadelphian and are spiritually rich and in need of nothing?

And yet, you might be blind to your faults.



Faith in God's Promises to Chasten Us    


When God punishes us to correct us for our faults and bring us to repentance, it is called "chastening" in the Bible.  God chastens us to correct us and turn us from our sins for our own good in the long term, so we are not condemned.  Faith is more than believing in God's promises for gifts and blessings.  It is believing everything God says, including His promises of punishment for sin.

"You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the LORD your God chastens you" (Deuteronomy 8:5).

"The LORD has chastened me severely, But He has not given me over to death" (Psalm 118:18).

"My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor detest His correction; For whom the LORD loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights" (Proverbs 3:11-12).

"For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world" (1 Corinthians 11:31-32).

"And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: 'My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.'  If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?  But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.  Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?  For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.  Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Hebrews 12:5-11).

"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent" (Revelation 3:19).

"Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, 'See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you' " (John 5:14).  Notice, Jesus told the man He had healed to sin no more lest something worse happen to him, indicating that the man had been sick because of punishment for sin.  Jesus did not say, you were sick because your faith was being tested.  He said, sin no more.

You can also read of the prophesied punishments upon Israel promised for sin in Deuteronomy and the prophets.  God punishes for sin.

Some trials may indeed be just tests of faith, but some are corrective punishments to turn us from a wrong way.  When a trial hits we need to examine ourselves in the light of God's word, the Bible, to see if we are at fault, and not just assume that we are innocent.

If God is putting you through a trial, don't assume you are righteous and He is only testing your faith in Him.  Examine yourself.  It may be that you have something you need to repent of.  It may be that God is telling you that you need to make some changes in your life.  He may not only be testing your faith as you keep doing the same old thing the same old way.

God may want you to change.