Learning The Facts About The Trials of Life
Many, many years ago, a man wrote the following in justifying his request from his employer for sick leave after being injured following a hurricane. When I got to the building site I found that a hurricane had blown some bricks off the top of the building. So, I rigged up a beam with a pulley at the top of the building and hoisted up a couple barrels full of bricks.
After I had fixed the damaged area I had a lot of bricks left over so I went back down to the ground and began to release the rope that was secured to the barrel of bricks. Unfortunately, the barrel of bricks was much heavier than I was—and before I knew it, the barrel started coming down so fast—it jerked me up. By the time I realized what was happening I was too far off the ground to let go of the rope so I hung on and halfway up I met the barrel of bricks coming down. I received a hard blow on my shoulder, but continued to the top where I banged my head on the beam and jammed my fingers in the pulley.
Then when the barrel of bricks hit the ground, the barrel broke open, spilling out all the bricks. I was now heavier than the barrel—so down I came much faster than I went up. Halfway down, I was hit with the broken pieces of the barrel, which were still tied to the rope and traveling fast causing severe pain to my shins. When I finally hit the ground, I landed on top of the pile of bricks and must have lost my presence of mind, because I let go of the rope, which caused the broken barrel to come down fast—hitting me on the head and putting me in the hospital.
I respectfully request sick leave.
Tough Days—we all have them and the fact of the matter is the Bible teaches us that we are supposed to have them because God has ordained that they are necessary to our spiritual growth and development. Passages such as 2 Corinthians 6:3-10; Philippians 1:29-30; 1 Thessalonians 3:3-5; 1 Peter 2:20-21; and 1 Peter 4:12 make it painfully clear that of the many things we are destined for as believers, persevering through tough days is one of them.
Therefore, since it is the case that God has ordained our trials and tough days for our good—it would behoove us to try and learn how to see them from His point of view so as to better understand why they are good for us and how to respond to them. You see, what you and I know about God, His purposes in our trials, and how to respond to them will go along way in helping us to reap the most benefit from them and this truly can revolutionize our lives. So, let’s turn to Mark 4:35-41 and we will see that:
Learning The Facts About The Trials of Life
Can Revolutionize Our Lives.
As you are turning, let me just warn you that if you are really wanting and yearning for an experiential Christianity in which you really are walking with the Lord and not just reading about others who have, you’ll find the path to be anything but easy. We don’t get the streets of gold in the heavenly city until after we have walked with Jesus on the debris littered, rock strewn, ever-winding, and seemingly unending uphill roads of earth.
1. Trials often are the result of our willingness to risk earthly treasure for the sake of Christ. (35-37)
Storms of this magnitude (hurricane force) were common on the Sea of Galilee at night. When the cold winds from Mt. Hermon, which is 9200 feet above sea level collided with the warm winds over the Sea of Galilee, which lies 680 feet below sea level violent storms would often erupt that threatened to sink any boat on the water. One source I looked at, The Historical Geography of The Holy Land, stated: “The atmosphere, for the most part, hangs still and heavy, but the cold currents, as they pass from the west, are sucked down into the vortices of air by the narrow gorges that break upon the Lake. Then arise those sudden storms for which the region is notorious.”
Sailing at night also posed the risk of striking logs, submerged rocks, or even other boats. Thus most fishermen in this day usually did not venture out onto the Sea of Galilee in the evening when the atmosphere over the Sea of Galilee was still warm. But apparently the disciples were willing to take the risk of being caught in a storm at night in order to do the Lord’s bidding. In other words, they were willing to put themselves in a position, which could entail suffering and in fact the loss of their boat and even their lives.
With this in mind, let me suggest to you that there are many believers today who would never put themselves or allow themselves to be put into a situation that might entail suffering any kind of loss for Christ. Thus, they should not be too surprised that their lives have been lived pretty much problem free and thus, in a sense with no concept of needing Christ in any spectacular way. That is a tragedy because a life that is lived so as to play it safe and not lose anything is not really a life at all. It is simply an existence empty of the experience of God’s presence and power because to have that—you’d have to risk losing your earthly treasures.
Perhaps the questions we all, who claim the Name of Christ, need to ask ourselves are:
“Do the choices we make in regard to our finances, careers, purchases, vehicles, homes, time, parenting, education, marriage, etc. reflect a willingness to suffer for the cause of Christ?”
“Are we willing to take the kinds of risks that while putting us in the position of very likely suffering some kind of loss for Christ also puts us into the position of demonstrating that our real treasure is in Heaven?”
I think we have so domesticated the word “Christian” that we have no idea of what it really means to know and follow Jesus. Ask the common garden variety Christian what it means to live as a Christian and he’ll tell you its to read your Bible, pray, hand a homeless guy a buck, and go to church when its convenient, sunny, and his nose isn’t running. Even the Pharisees did that!
No, Christianity is so much more than those things—it is to be so hungry for Christ, so ravished for His experiential presence, so filled with desire to know Him that you’ll be willing to give up anything you have to have Him and suffer any loss to experience Him.
But again, let me warn you—if you take God seriously and adopt this attitude—it’ll cost you—just like it almost cost the disciples their lives, their boats, and their livelihoods. However, now that they are all in Heaven—do you think they have any regrets? No way! In fact, you know as well as I that there will be no one in Heaven who regrets risking and losing for the sake of Christ. There will be a vast crowd, however, who will regret not having risked more. Which crowd will you be in?
2. Jesus’ presence does not make us immune to or put us out of the reach of trials. (38a)
Neither the disciple’s willingness to go out on a limb for the sake of Christ nor the fact that Jesus was with them made them immune to the storm of their lives. If someone told you before you were saved that Jesus was going to give you a problem free life and that you'd never feel lonely or scared or angry or depressed or never want to sin again--they lied and they lied big time!
If you are pursuing Jesus with a passion you will be becoming like Jesus and the Scriptures are clear that we will experience the same sufferings that He, our Master did. In fact, we are promised a hard life not an easy life. James 1:2 doesn't say: "Consider it all joy if you encounter various trials" but rather "when you encounter trials". And the reciprocal truth in James 1:2 would be that we should consider it to be no joy when we are not encountering various trials.
3. Trials tempt us to doubt God’s concern for us. (38b)
In essence the disciples say: “Do we mean so little to you? With death staring us in the face, how can you sleep? Don’t you care whether we drown in this storm?”
There was nothing mild about their outcry. They lashed out at him in fear, anger, and hysteria. So even though willing to risk it all for Christ—when the storm came—they gave into their fears and lashed out caustically at Jesus. They lost sight of the fact that even in death—had the storm drown them—they were still in God’s care and receiving from Him His very best. In other words, even had their greatest fears been realized and they died—it would have been no big deal because they belonged to Christ and Heaven would be their destination.
Listen the worst thing we could ever lose would probably be our lives in the service of Christ but even if we do—the Bible tells us—it would be “great gain”. That’s what Paul writes in Philippians 1:21—“For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” But does Philippians 1:21 also apply when the person who dies is not us but a cherished love one. I mean would any of us be able to say at the funeral of a loved one that their death is actually gain not only for them but for us? I think that it does apply in this way and I think if we don’t apply it this way that we will never be willing to follow the Lord in any kind of endeavor or venture that may even put at risk, in addition to ourselves, our loved ones as well.
It is important to realize that on this boat trip with Jesus were men who were not only close friends—there were also at least two sets of brothers there as well—Peter & Andrew and James & John. Thus, when Peter agreed to go with Jesus, he put Andrew at risk and when John agreed to go he put James at risk and vice versa.
We must also realize that in saying “Yes” to Jesus, each of these men also put his family in a position of potential risk in that if these men died in a storm their families would obviously be affected in some negative way—but Jesus had this covered as well.
Regardless of who might possibly be lost—it would be gain for both—the one who died and one who was left.
4. Trials enable us to see and experience God and His grace in ways we never could otherwise. (39)
The disciples never would have experienced the miraculous calming of the storm had they never experienced the storm. Suffering is a universal Christian experience that is designed by God to glorify Himself in that your pain gives Him the opportunity to reveal Himself and His love for you much more powerfully and immensely than is possible otherwise.
It isn’t that God cannot reveal Himself without our suffering—He can.
The problem isn’t in God—it’s in us. We have no capacity for the depth and breadth of God’s love apart from pain and difficulty.
We are so satisfied with our limited happiness and convenient comforts that are represented in our neat, tidy, compact, and non-suffering existences that we don’t want God to all of a sudden interrupt our rut and trash our toys, all in the hope of showing us what our real treasure and pleasure in life could be. Therefore, God because He loves us—interrupts us, breaks our toys, and brings into our lives those experiences—those painful experiences that reveal Him and His love in ways that could not be experienced otherwise.
5. Trials reveal our level of faith or our lack of faith. (40 w/35 & 5:1)
It is interesting that Jesus had announced their destination before they departed and before the storm hit. Had the disciples listened to Him and took His words to heart and believed He had the authority, ability, and desire to honor His Word they never would have doubted Him. Thus, the storm revealed in them a lack of faith. Thus, the reason for Jesus’ first response to their fear, which is not recorded by Mark but by Matthew in Matthew 8:26.
Nevertheless, before we judge these men too harshly, the following facts must be kept in mind: First, the disciples were thoroughly frightened—they truly believed they were in danger and going to die—thus they reacted the same as we might under those circumstances. And two, their fear, anger, and harshness were mixed with some trust, even if it was a little. This is seen in that they did cry out to Him rather than anyone else.
6. Trials will ultimately make us better even if they temporarily make us bitter. (40-41)
Notice that after Jesus calms the storm, He is not done asking questions. You see, in verse 40, Jesus has a couple more questions for them, which now have nothing to do with their initial reaction to the storm’s arising but to Jesus calming it. He asks: “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
If you miss the tense of the question you will miss the whole point.
Jesus does not ask: “Why were you afraid?”
Jesus asks: “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
In other words, “Why after seeing me calm the store in response to your fears and accusations of me not caring for you—are you still afraid? Do you, after seeing what I have done still have no faith in my concern for you, my love for you, and my ability to meet your needs?” You see, whereas trials will always reveal the depth of our faith—they do not always build or mature our faith right away! And in asking these two very pointed questions, Jesus is making the point to His disciples that unless they changed their attitudes, they would, for the time being, miss out on what this particular trial was designed to do for them—which you will see in verse 41.
After Jesus’ pointed questions brought the disciples to their senses their fear and bitterness faded and they were able to experience what God had intended for them to experience in the first place—awe and amazement at Who Jesus is.
The phrase “They became very much afraid” comes from a Greek phrase, which in English means: And they feared an intensely far greater fear. In other words, the fear and the amazement they experienced in seeing the power of the storm was nothing in comparison to seeing the divine power and majesty of Christ. In essence, what they experienced in seeing Christ calm the storm as well as the storm in their own hearts was a reverential worshipful sense of awe and amazement in realizing that the Jesus in their boat was none other than God Himself.
You see, when they moved from making much of their trial to seeing Jesus through the lens of their trial they were able to see something of the greatness of Jesus they had never known and quite frankly had never imagined. And this awe was then demonstrated in the continual over and over again [imperfect tense] stating of the question: “Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”
You see, God never wastes our pain!
Even though the disciples were still upset and afraid, after Jesus calmed the storm—Jesus did not leave them in their bitterness and fear. He lifted them out of it and did not waste their really tough evening—rather He showed them His power and made them all the better for it.
It is so important for us to get a hold of this truth. We often become discouraged because we don’t react to our trials the way we know we should. Time after time and trial after trial, we often find ourselves reacting with seemingly no improvement. Yet, God is working in our lives and we need to rejoice in what improvement, regardless of how small there is. Perhaps, it is taking less time to realize your reactions are wrong and need correcting or maybe you are reacting with less fear, anger, and frustration. Be assured, God is working in your lives through the storms. He will not waste them.
Over the course of time and sometimes over the course of a lifetime, believers realize the fundamental truth that trials are God’s tools to accomplish in them and for them what could not have been accomplished otherwise. Thus, the reason, why the mature saints I know all agree with this statement made by Malcolm Muggeridge: “Looking over my 90 years, I realize I have never made any progress in good times. I only progressed in the hard times.”
Samuel Rutherford was a Scottish minister who, after pastoring for several years and also serving on the council that produced the Westminster Confession, was arrested for high treason—because of his protestant beliefs.
He was sentenced to death but before he could be burned at the stake he died in prison at the age of 61 years old.
While in prison he wrote some 220 letters, which are still preserved today. In one of these letters he expressed what he had learned about suffering.
If God had told me some time ago that He was about to make me as happy as I could be in this world, and then had told me that He should begin by crippling me in all my limbs, and removing me from all my usual sources of enjoyment, I should have thought it a very strange mode of accomplishing His purpose.
And yet, how is His wisdom manifest even in this! For if you should see a man shut up in a close room, idolizing a set of lamps and rejoicing in their light, and you wished to make him truly happy, you would begin by blowing out all of his lamps; and then throw open the shutters to let in the light of heaven.
And that my friends is what our trials do for us—they force us to turn from our artificial temporary joys to the source of all true and lasting joy—Jesus Christ Himself—our Sovereign Joy.
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