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In every Christians life, there will be moments of failure and trial. I would even go so far as to say that every day will have moments of failure and trial. The thing about it is, these are the main things God uses to shape you into an effective tool in his sovereign hand. Below we will look at the reasons why these moments, a process we at Kavod Family call 'forging,' is something you should get used to, look forward to, and always learn from.
Why use the term 'forging?'
I am going to keep this as brief and pointed as possible. When a blacksmith wants to take metal and make it into something useful, like a tool, armor, or a weapon, the metal must be put into a forge and super-heated to become pliable, and then beaten with a hammer or other implement to shape it into the desired form.
Here is the picture: the blacksmith is God, you are the metal, and the trials, temptations, and failures in your life are the forge. God uses these moments to heat you into something able to be molded. Unless you go through this forging process, you can never be able to be formed into something useful for God.
Why this way?
A natural question that arises is this: why does God do it this way?
Why can't he just zap us at the point of conversion and make us perfect? I mean, he'll do that one day in heaven, right?
The answer I give may not sit well with you, but if you give it some thought you will come to the same conclusion. The reason God does it this way is because it brings him the most glory to form and mold imperfect people into Christlike children over a long period of time, and it is a witness to other people of the power of God for them to see the way he actually takes and changes a person in real time.
If we were to become perfect at conversion, we would most likely drift into pride and arrogance at some point. We would begin doing things in our own power, allowing the glory to go to us instead of our Father in heaven. We would also have less of an impact on those around us because we would lack the ability to relate with them. Think about it. If you never struggled and failed in life, how could you counsel and encourage those around you in their times of trial and failure? You would become removed and unloving. That is not the way God has designed the gospel to go forth and the Kingdom to grow.
How is any of this freeing?
Upon reading the title of this post, you may be feeling deceived. You might be thinking that all of this trial and failure talk is something that you have to just suck it up and deal with; that this is all just an elaborate way of saying that the Christian life is one of abject failure and gloom.
Au contraire mon frère.
If you can ingest this truth and let it sink deeply into the lowest recesses of your being, you will become the freest person in the world. Before you continue reading, however, go and read Romans 6:1-2. It will show you what I am NOT saying. Let's continue.
The reason why I say that this is freeing is because it unshackles you from the fear of failure and trial. It bursts the bonds of anxiety and crushes the satanic spirit of condemnation. The reason for this is simple: God expects failure and plans trials. It is that simple. If you recognize this, you will walk in a completely different way. Let's discuss these two points.
God expects failure
There is a passage in the book of Psalms that perfectly summarizes what I am trying to say.
"As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust."
- Psalm 103:13-14
Here we get a glimpse of the way God sees us. When he looks upon us, it is with compassion. He looks through this lens because he knows how we are formed. He is the one that formed us. He remembers that we are dust, prone to wander, fail, and sin. He knows all of our weaknesses, sinful tendencies, and shortcomings, and lovingly shows compassion on us in spite of them all. He anticipates our failures and meets us with, firstly, a way of escape so that we don't have to commit the sin (1 Cor. 10:13), and secondly with compassionate and tender mercy and grace (1 John 1:9).
Let this sink in. Ruminate on it. Learn to cherish the kindness and love of your heavenly Father. This will give you a totally different perspective on sin and failure.
God plans trials
For this, I turn to the book of Genesis and, in particular, the story of Joseph. In this story, there are countless situations that Joseph is thrust into, seemingly coincidentally, that test and try his faith and hope in God. He is sold into slavery by his brothers, set up to look like a sexual abuser and thrown into prison, and forgotten while in the prison after being promised a speedy release. All of these wild trials are met by a resolute faith on Josephs's part. Throughout the story you will have mixed emotions, wondering why such incredibly unfortunate things keep happening to this seemingly innocent man.
It isn't until the very end of the story that we receive the key that unlocks the true purpose behind the whole thing. Joseph is raised to the level of ruler in Egypt, is reunited with his family, among whom are the brothers who sold him into slavery earlier in the story, and Joseph says in regards to all of this, "What you meant for evil, God meant for good." It is here that we see the way God does things. All of the trials and tribulations Joseph experienced in his life were planned by the Lord in order to prepare Joseph for the place God wanted him, namely, as a ruler of Egypt who was able to take in and protect his family in the midst of famine so that God's promise would stand that from the line of Josephs father would come the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
This paints a beautiful picture for us of the way in which God lays out trials in our lives in order to shape us into a specific type of person; a person who is able to rule and lead by faith in the God who has been faithful through everything.
My prayer for you is that as you walk through this life and encounter failure and testing, you will see them as opportunities to grow and become more like Jesus Christ, knowing that God's opinion of you doesn't change because of your sin, and that the trials are there by God's hand for you to overcome by faith and trust in his compassionate love for you.
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