Failed Trials
November 19, 2007
Dear Friends,
We have made much about the promise that God has made to us that “ALL THINGS work together for good.” We find tremendous comfort in this promise. God is there. God is working. God is making bad things into good things. At the same time, we now offer a caveat to that broad statement. That caveat, which we hope to prove by way of example, is that trials only work for good if we pass them. In other words, when God is working in our life, the good thing that God is bringing about may not come about if we fail the trial.
Let’s take the trial of Job as an example. Soon after Job’s trials had come about, his wife came to him with the following bad advice: “curse God and die.” We all know the end of the story. Job didn’t listen to his wife. Job learned from his experience. Job’s three friends were saved. God’s righteousness was declared by all. However, imagine for a moment if Job had taken his wife’s advice. It seems doubtful to me that any of these blessings would have accrued had not Job passed the test. God was working for good, but it did not nullify Job’s free will. If Job had succumbed to his wife’s wicked suggestion, God still might have worked to save the three friends, but perhaps that opportunity would have passed too. Job certainly wouldn’t have obtained the good that was to come.
In another example, suppose that Abraham had decided not to leave his country and his family and set off into the unknown. Of course we don’t know the answer since Abraham did pass this test of faith, but we know that it wouldn’t have been what God wanted. Maybe God would have given him another chance like he did so many others. Perhaps God’s will would have been exercised through another individual. The point is that benefits accrue through passed tests, not failed tests.
As we have said before, the end result of the trial is not the most important thing. It is much more important how we go through that trial than the result of that trial. If we don’t recover from that disease, it is not as important as how we responded in the throes of that disease. The good that results from how we reacted may not be directly to us, but to our family, friends or even people we don’t know.
Practically speaking then, when awful things happen we need understand first and foremost that God is working for good. When we don’t readily see that good, there may be a couple of things at play. First, the good may be time-delayed. Think of Joseph being taken to Egypt and his problem with Potiphar’s wife. It was years before the good was realized by Joseph successfully passing his test. Second, it may be that the good was nullified by someone (us?) not passing the test. God is still working for good but not all of that good will be realized.
Let’s face it; we are not going to pass every test. Therefore some of the good that would accumulate to us and others will not. We should not beat ourselves up about this. It is part of God’s plan that we fail even though He doesn’t want us to fail and doesn’t stack the deck against us. The exhortation is for us to keep trying and keep looking for the good. All we can do is to do our best to remain faithful, take it day by day and respond as best we can under trail. God will take care of the rest.
Have a great week,
