Today, I'll be talking about the tough reality that life as a Christian isn't always easy. We often find ourselves surprised when trials come our way, but the truth is, the Bible has a lot to say about our expectations regarding challenges. In this episode, I’ll correct some common misunderstandings about salvation and trials, emphasizing that they are essential for our spiritual growth. We'll explore how trials can actually deepen our faith, teach us gratitude, and refocus our perspectives on what truly matters—eternity. So, whether you're in a tough spot or just wanting to prepare for future challenges, there's valuable insight here that can help us navigate life's ups and downs with a clearer understanding of God's purpose.

Takeaways:

1. The Bible provides everything needed for meaning, purpose, love, peace, and salvation.
2. Trials should not surprise us as Christians, as they are part of the faith journey.
3. Understanding salvation requires a deeper commitment beyond just a one-time prayer or belief.
4. God is actively present during our trials, helping us grow spiritually through adversity.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. www.bible805.com

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Hi, I'm Yvon Prehn from Bible 805 and I truly believe the Bible has everything you need to find meaning and purpose, love and peace in this life and it is a source for forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation. Pretty good stuff in this randomly scheduled podcast. Through longer lessons and shorter challenges.

I want to tell you about it by making sometimes complex bio Bible topics understandable.

So let's do that today with our podcast topic which is Our lesson today is from the series Happy Corrections because the Bible doesn't say what you think it says. And our title for the lesson today is Because Life as a Christian Isn't always Easy. Now, what do we need corrected in our attitude and our view?

Here we need corrected our sadness and surprise when trials come, and they always come as first Peter 4:11 tells us.

I'm going to read it to you both in the NIV and in the message where it says, dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. And then the message puts it this way, friends, when life gets really difficult, don't jump to the conclusion that God isn't on the job.

Instead, be glad that you're in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process with glory just around the corner.

But no matter how much these verses and other verses in the Bible tell us that trials are going to be part of the Christian life, we're still often surprised.

Now in our lesson today, we're going to talk about some of the reasons why we're surprised, some views that we have that we really shouldn't have foundationally. And then we'll talk about correctives to them and how we can really use trials in our life to grow as Christians.

Now, there are two primary areas that we tend to be incorrect about. The first one is where we tend to be incorrect about the meaning of salvation itself. This is a really foundational error.

And then secondly, we're incorrect about what the Bible says about trials. Now as a corrective to these two first we're going to look at the view of salvation salvation and then seven truths about trials.

First of all, a corrective in our view of salvation. John Mark Comer correctly identifies the problem in his book Practicing the Way when he defines the current views of salvation in this way.

Here's what he say a one time prayer Believe a set of doctrines about God, attend church, thereby ensuring you go to heaven when you die. But and here is the key in a bizarre twist, it does not necessarily require a life of apprenticeship to Jesus in the here and now.

If salvation is reduced to this one time gift, we expect to continue to get what we want. The thinking goes something like this. It's not often expressed, but unless we've been taught otherwise, here is what many people think.

If Jesus did all he did to save me and it was a free gift to me, then it follows he should continue to give me all I want and need, protect me from pain and troubles, and make me continuously happy and prosperous. But that isn't what the Bible teaches now.

Check out other resources and John Mark Comer's book is a great one on the expectation of discipleship after salvation. For this lesson we'll focus on one aspect of how we grow as disciples, and that's through trials.

But before we get into the specifics of seven ways God used trials in our lives to help us grow to spiritual maturity after receiving the gift of salvation, here's what we need to do. First, we need to take an honest look at if what we are experiencing is even truly a trial.

Now what's your standard for determining if something is a trial? First, look at your spiritual life. Were you unaware of or ignored a sin God wants you to change?

Were you harboring a bad attitude, an attitude of spiritual immaturity? A really good diagnostic prayer is in Psalm 139 where it says search me O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there's any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Second, look at your attitudes, your expectations for the way you think life should work and what are they based on?

We won't get a realistic biblical view from our world which constantly emphasizes all the things we're entitled. Entitled to prosperity, no troubles, the best of everything without problems.

To determine if something's truly a trial or merely an inconvenience or an unmet want is hard to do because let's face it, we live in a culture of entitlement. I deserve this that permeates all of people's lives, social media and even the church intangible practical ways in North America.

Now I know it's different in many parts of the world. I'm just talking about myself and us selfish North Americans and rest of the world. Please forgive us for this.

But we think we deserve it all and whatever that all is defined to be according to our social peers in emotional areas. We want perfect love and friendship and we don't want anything to disturb our self fulfillment or whatever we want to call it that is our right.

We deserve it. We've been told in retirement we deserve our self absorbed leisure and our bucket lists.

However, the Bible presents an entirely different view of life. All of life. One of contentment no matter what we have, of self denial of service through all of life, young or older, no time off from obedience.

As it reminds us in just one area, let's look at a few verses about our material needs. Hebrews 13:5 says, Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have.

It's not a trial when you want something somebody else has. No, we're to be content because God has said, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.

In Matthew 6:26 it says, look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns. Yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Now what can we do?

As always get into God's word honestly. Look at his calling on people's lives, how his servants lived.

Though honestly, you might not like it if you look at their lives honestly, be careful of who your referent others are in your life. How do you measure your life in terms of values, affluence, how they spend money and leisure? Who is it that determines these things for you?

Those are your referent others. How do they handle trials or hardships?

Honestly, if you look at that and you find that you're mostly around people who are just consumed with affluence and greed and me, me, me and keeping up with the latest and all that sort of thing, you may need new friends, you may need a new circle of influence. You may need different social media feeds and a little plug here for Bible 805.

I have hundreds of videos and PO and my YouTube shorts that are just tons of little short reminders of how to live.

As a disciple of Jesus, I cannot recommend enough that you listen to those that you watch those they won't take much time and really reorient your life to God's word. Now it isn't that you want to just get away from really bad stuff. Hopefully you're not doing drugs or robbing banks or any of that kind of thing. But.

But how do those that you spend time with in real life or online, are they influencing you to become more like Jesus, to have Kingdom values to live a sacrificial life. Now, with this evaluation as a foundation and the determination of what truly is a trial, let's look at seven ways God uses trials in our lives.

God is at work in the midst of trials. He uses them as a reminder that he doesn't abandon us when they come. He's right there.

In Isaiah 43:2 it tells us, when you pass through the waters, I will be with you. When you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, the flames will not set you ablaze. And Psalm 46:1 reminds us, God is our refuge and strength and ever present, he doesn't go away. Help in trouble.

Now, these verses should encourage us because God never says he's only with us when a trial's over. Sometimes people think that God is with us in the trial when it's going on.

One of the biggest dangers in hard times is when we pray and we think that God's going to show up. Then the trial is going to be over. But no. God has shown up. He never left. He's always with us.

He's right there in the trial, doing with the trial what needs to be done in our lives. This leads us next to the reality that trials help us grow spiritually.

We often grow the most when times are the most difficult, because, miserable as it may be, we often don't learn any other way.

They're more valuable to me than millions in silver and gold. Now let's look at how trials can help us grow in a little more detail.

You see, it's kind of like exercise develops our physical bodies, hard times grow our spiritual selves. James 1 says, Consider it a sheer gift, friends.

When tests and challenges come at you from all sides, you know that under pressure, your faith life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so that you become mature and well developed, not deficient in any way.

This isn't difficult to understand. You don't need. You don't learn patience without it being tested.

You don't learn trust when you can handle everything on your own Number three Trials aren't only about us.

This is a little hard, but here's the reality in 2nd Corinthians 13:5 where it says all praise to the God and Father of our Master Jesus, the Messiah, Father of all mercy, God of all healing counsel.

He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who's going through hard times so that we can be there for that person, just as God was for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than good times of his healing comfort.

We get a full measure that too. Sometimes we go through something difficult so we can help someone later or understand better what they're going through.

I know we all I'm like this so much, and probably most of you are too, that I'll listen to advice from someone who's gone through a hard time. And if it seems like somebody's life has just been easy, easy, easy, and they try to tell me how to deal with stuff, eh, I don't listen so much.

For better or for worse, when we know people have been battle tested, you might say, well listen to them. This is especially true if you are in a ministry position. For better or for worse, people are watching you.

How can you be a witness for the sufficiency of God in your trial? What can other people learn from watching how you handle it?

This can be incredibly hard when what we teach is put on the line for all to see and when we might feel like we're barely hanging on. Pray that your life becomes congruent with your message now. Be kind to yourself, but also be very strict with yourself.

Take time to evaluate if what you teach is what you truly believe and if you are living it out. That might be brutal, but it's important and make corrections if necessary, especially for a leader, but for everyone else.

One more piece of advice here. Don't assume that people will respond in the same way that you did if they go through a similar trial.

You can share what has helped or encouraged you, but never ever, ever be adamant about what someone else should do, especially in times of grief.

People react to grief and loss very differently in many things of life, and just because you did things in a certain way does not mean that is best for them. Don't forget there are also spiritual forces at work. Remember Job?

He never knew that not only was his life being used as a lesson to the people around him, but to the entire host of heaven on how a person could trust God no matter what, he may also use us in this way as a demonstration. We are never told that what Job went through was a one time thing.

Now that's not particularly comforting, but it is a reality we need to keep in mind.

Yet we're not without help, as we are reminded in Ephesians 6 that we can put on the whole armor of God so you'll be able to stand safe against all the strategies and tricks of Satan. For we're not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against persons without bodies, the evil rulers of the unseen world.

World, those mighty satanic beings and great evil princes of darkness who rule this world and against huge numbers of wicked spirits in the spirit world. Your trials may be a great honor, as Job's were. Make the Lord proud of how you respond. Four Trials teach us the real source of hope. Hope.

Real hope in a time where all things will get better.

Ultimate hope in true justice, where all wrongs are righted, all good dreams come true, is only found in God and in his coming kingdom, where all will be rewarded, all made whole. Hope in anything less will always disappoint and is often a lie.

Be careful of human platitudes about hope, and there are a lot of them going around that are blatantly false. Like there's this one. Found it online. But hoping, she said, is how the impossible can be made possible.

After all, Marissa Meyer said that that is simply stupid and nonsensical and there's a lot of stuff out there like, oh, if you dream it, it will come and you know, all this kind of stuff. No, that doesn't happen that way. Trials show human platitudes for the lie that they are real.

Hope is only found in the Lord because hope, like faith, is only as good as its object. Hope and faith must have an object. We must have hope in something or someone. You can't tell yourself or someone else to only have hope.

Have faith in what? Always ask in what, as this verse reminds us. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles.

They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint. Because God is the object of our hope. It is a hope that can give us strength once again.

We won't know the Lord of hope and the true reasons for hope and what realistically hope can be based on if we don't know his word. Trials teach us true thankfulness in everything. Give thanks first. Thessalonians 5:18 tells us evil does happen in this fallen world.

Sad, tragic, horrid things take place. It seems unnatural to give thanks at those times. But consider that giving thanks in the trial isn't a denial.

Many biblical writers screamed, cried, asked why. But they didn't stop there. Like David said, my tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, where's your God?

These things I remember as I pour out my soul. Why my soul are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

It's okay to vent honest expressions of feelings, and we don't have to do that with complaining. We can say I hurt, but it's not a good idea to ask why me or I didn't deserve this. God never minds when we tell him that we hurt.

Or even if we ask why David did that. He said, why my soul are you downcast? But don't let it slip into complaining and whining. Thankfulness is powerful.

The psalmist remembered to be thankful and praise God in the midst of it all.

No matter how awful the situation, and again, many truly are, you can always thank God, perhaps for no other reason than because this present hardship is not all there is in this life, now or forever. And things may be happening in and through you that you can't see now. Also, when you're thankful, it changes you.

Wallowing in pity makes it worse for you. It makes you unpleasant to be around people.

You know, they're nice for a while, but people that continuously gripe and complain and all that, no matter how hard it is, people don't want to hear it. That's just reality, and it certainly says nothing good about the God you claim to trust.

What you focus on can consume you, either God or circumstances, the past or your future with him. You can be a witness or a whiner. You can't be both. You choose. Six Trials teach us the truth about God.

We're told God is love, that he can be trusted, that all works together for our good. But this might be hard to believe when you're in a difficult time, because Satan will always lie about God.

Hath God said was the first lie in the Garden of Eden? Satan will tell you that God doesn't love you if he gives you trials.

But when you read your Bible, you see that God's love is expressed often in the trials. That's the truth you need to learn and believe. To do that, you need to learn more than just a few scattered verses here and there about God.

You need to learn what the Bible shows He is truly like. Remember, Jesus said we're in error even in our sadness when we don't know the Scriptures.

And one of the most important reasons to go through the Bible chronologically and read the whole thing is so that you can see how God has worked through all of human history. You'll learn the patterns of how he interacts with people in many situations at the same time. Listen carefully.

You'll learn how he is both much tougher than popular views of him and yet more comforting than we ever imagined. Here are some other things you learn about God.

The more you read your Bible, you get an honest view how he treated his servants in the past and how they responded. A good summary is in Hebrews 11, and I highly recommend you read it all.

But here's one section after listing the many trials they had and they were pretty bad. Here's what it says. All these whom we've mentioned maintained their faith, but died without actually receiving God's promises.

Though they'd seen them in the distance and hailed them as true and were quite convinced of their reality, they freely admitted that they lived on this earth as exiles and foreigners. The fact that they longed for a better country altogether nothing less than a heavenly one.

And because of this faith of theirs, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for in sober truth he has prepared for them a city in heaven. Many of their lives were incredibly difficult and they did not receive the promises of what we too often demand as our right and what we want now.

But can you imagine a more wonderful thing to be said of you than God is not ashamed to be called your God. Your faithfulness and trust in trials can make that happen. Number seven Trials refocus our view on eternity.

Eternity is just one moment away, but we forget that we often look at things so close to us. We forget the reality of our eternal souls and the importance of preparing to meet our Creator.

We look too closely at what's going on today, what's fun, what we want, what our earthly goals are. But then a tragedy, a trial happens and our view is forced to shift. If Covid taught us anything, that's it.

People are healthy one week and gone the next. But it doesn't take a pandemic to remind us of the fragility of life.

Many people have crushing health issues that they've just found out about, and no treatment can solve them. Loved ones can be taken at any time without warning.

Or perhaps we've had a devastating material loss from fire or theft or natural disaster as so many have experienced with earthquakes, hurricanes, and even too much of a good thing like rain and snow that we've had here in California. All of them show us we can't anchor our love, hope, satisfaction and fulfillment in this life. It's too fragile and fleeting.

And as much as it hurts, a severe trial may be the only thing to remind us of that reality.

Had trials small and large not happened, we might live foolishly believing that this life is the best it will ever be, and we will chase empty and ultimately unfulfilling goals. When trials shift our focus and we set our hearts on eternity with our Lord, we can order our lives with a sense of what is truly important.

As Amy Carmichael said, we have all of eternity to celebrate the victories, but only a few short hours before sunset to win them. A trial can help us refocus our view on what is truly eternally important and live with that in mind.

As the Apostle Peter said in a great shift of perspective, since everything here today might well be gone tomorrow, and my parenthetical thought that includes our loved ones, the earthly treasures we have, and also our pain and trials, he goes on to say, do you see how essential it is to live a holy life daily? Expect the day of God eager for its arrival. The galaxies will burn up and the elements will melt down that day, but we'll hardly notice.

We'll be looking the other way, ready for the promised new heavens and the promised new earth, all landscaped with righteousness. In closing, let's review the seven ways God uses trials in our lives. 1. God is at work in the midst of trial. 2. Trials help us grow spiritually. 3.

Trials aren't only about us. 4 Trials teach us the real source of hope. 5 Trials teach us true thankfulness.

6 Trials teach us the truth about God and 7 Trials refocus our view on eternity. One more thing.

If you're in a hard, sad place now, if you are experiencing a true trial, and I know probably many of you are, if the application of this lesson is difficult, if you don't feel encouraged or hopeful or thankful in your trial, even though you're diligently in God's word and truly want to peacefully trust him, here's my act as if CS Lewis talks about how we act as if we love another person, we'll soon find ourselves loving that person. It's the same with our relationship with God.

Sometimes we need to go through the motions of trust, obedience, thanking, and trusting God in the midst of trials simply as an act of discipline. Eventually our feelings will catch up.

Please check out the show notes, a complete downloadable transcript, graphics mention, and related materials at www.bible805.com. Until next time. Hello, I'm Yvonne Prynne, your fellow pilgrim, writer and teacher for Jesus, and I'd like to close with this benediction.

May you know the invitation of God to move from confusion to clarity, from wandering to rest, from loneliness to knowing you are loved, from turmoil to peace, from wherever you are in your spiritual journey to a growing knowledge of God's Word and in your personal relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.