Trials Strengthen Our Faith

“In this, you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” 1 Peter 1:6

In his book “Winning the Values War”, Leith Anderson tells the following story:
“At the 100th anniversary of the arrival of missionaries in Zaire, Christians gathered to celebrate from that part of Zaire that was once called the Belgian Congo. Near the end of the celebration, a very old man stood to give a speech. He said that he would die soon and that he needed to tell something that no other man still living knew.

He explained that when the first white missionaries came, his people didn’t know whether to believe their message or not. So they devised a plan to slowly and secretly poison the missionaries and watch them die.

One by one, children and adults became ill, died, and were buried. It was when his people saw how these missionaries died that they decided to believe their message.

The missionaries never knew what was happening. They didn’t know they were being poisoned, and they didn’t know why they were dying. Their faithfulness to the Lord convinced the people they ministered too that their message was true.”

We will all face various trials in our lives, but the purpose is to refine us and make us more like Jesus Christ.

Give thanks for the trials in your life and look to Jesus, the hope of our faith to endure them.

“God sometimes snuffs out our brightest candle so that we may look up to His eternal stars.” – Vance Havner

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.” – James 1:2-3