The Trial Is Grace
When we first come to Christ, there is usually a rush of freedom, joy, and grace. The forgiveness of God over our sins, the joy of his presence, and the freedom of his life within us can create this exciting dynamic at the beginning of our life in Christ. We find that worship and prayer are fresh and powerful. God’s word is constantly alive as we uncover truth after truth.
Sometimes, the journey is more mundane. Maybe your path to Salvation in Christ was a long and careful journey of weighing each element until the revelation of God’s life found a home in your heart. Even so, the freedom and wonder of recognizing Jesus as Lord is just a beautiful and awe-inspiring thing.
Whatever your experience was in coming to Christ, it seems to me that the wilderness always immediately follows our deliverance. This season is no less joyful or free than when we were first found in Christ, but it is certainly not without struggle, surrender, and difficulty. The moment of our salvation is and should be a powerful milestone or anchor in our life, but the majority of our walk with Christ is different. For as much as the grace of Christ cleanses us from our past sins and fills us with the new creation, spiritual maturity comes through the testing of our faith. It’s this mixture of joy, struggle, breakthrough, failure, feeling strong, and feeling weak that God shapes us into the people he has called us to be.
It’s tempting to long for the “good days” when God was fresh in your life. Looking back on those early moments of faith, we might glamorize or idealize life at first with Christ, whereas in reality, that early season was probably marked with immaturity and blindspots you don’t deal with today. Where did that growth come from? It didn’t come through comfort and relaxation. It was cultivated through the friction of life and the discipline of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit will always lead us into trials and challenges where our faith can deepen and strengthen. The invitation to the war is an invitation to grace. So it makes sense that we should develop a theology of spiritual growth that works in the mundane, the gritty, and the uncomfortable. If our faith is incompatible with suffering and trouble, it’s not worth much at all!
Consider the love of God on display in his discipline. Proverbs 3:12 ESV says, “For the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.” It is God’s joy to challenge us, discipline us, and work in us through every moment of our lives.
As much as God delights to lead us to rest, as we read in Psalm 23, he also leads us through the valley. I’m encouraged and inspired by a God who doesn’t sit far off expecting us to work through our problems alone. He doesn’t wait for us to get our act together and worship and serve him as proof of our worth. He enters into every moment of our life, good and bad, and uses it for glory. In this way, we are convinced that our worth to God rests not on what we do but on who we are.
Perhaps that gives us a new perspective of Paul’s words in Romans 8:28 ESV, saying, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” When we walk in love and obedience, God transforms everything to be for our good—our growth in Christ.
Today I invite you to consider the unexpected ways God might be working around you. Could it be that the challenges you are dreading are actually the perfect opportunity to grow in grace?
