3 Reasons God May Allow Trials In Our Lives

Why God Allows Trials And Crisis In Our Lives

So, first of all, I want to say that God created a perfect world, but we now live in a broken world because of the fall in the garden (Genesis 3). Because of the fall, we live in a world that is predisposed to evil, so God said that “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” (6:5 NIV) Humankind is naturally evil, and our hearts and thoughts are continually evil. 

Because of continual evil is why God sent His son Jesus Christ to bring salvation to the world so that if we believe in Jesus, we will become born-again and be reconciled back to God. Our flesh will die, but our spirit man will live – this means that when we become born-again, we will not want to sin anymore, and we will want to live a righteous life by the grace of God. This new way of life is not from our works but by the grace of God. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV)

With that said, everyone at one point in their life will hear the good news (gospel) that they need to repent and turn back to God. 

Matthew 3:2 “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”

Matthew 4:17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

In John 17:3, Jesus said that Eternal Life is to know the only true God and know Jesus Christ. 

I wanted to lay down the foundation and build upon the core of my message. In this world, you have two options: believing in Jesus Christ and turning to God or not believing and continuing to live in sin. We all have a choice, and believe it or not; our choices affect not only us but people around us – (Joshua 7) 

In short, we live in a fallen world. Still, God has provided a way for us to enjoy fellowship with Him, but that does not mean that when we become born-again Christians, we will not go through trials and crises, remember, we live in a fallen and sinful world where people are predisposed to sin. 

. I want to talk about some people who went through crises in the Bible and what we can learn from their lives. 

Trials Caused By Our Sin

King David – David was a man after God’s heart (1 Samuel 13:14) – God loved David because David was obedient to Him and did all that God told him to do – David had communication with God. God appointed David for the throne of Israel – it was a tough transition to the throne, but at the appointed time, David sat on his throne and ruled both Israel and Judah. He was a man of war; he won much war because God was with Him and God fought for Him – David won many battles, and his name spread to other kingdoms, and kings were afraid of him. 

As much as David was a man of God and God was with him in all that he did – he lived in a fallen world, and he was a flawed man. One faithful Spring day, David will make a fatal decision that will cause him many trials for the rest of his life. (In 2 Samuel 11) David saw a beautiful woman and decided to sleep with her; his relations with her produced pregnancy, which turned into King David killing the woman’s husband and marrying the woman. David did displease God very much, and God is a Just God, and a God of principle so David’s sin brought punishment. 

David went through many heartaches and pain, which came mainly from his family and people who were very close to him. He made a couple of mistakes as well later in his life, which also brought punishment to the land of Isreal. But God still loved David and brought him out of the trials. Every time David sinned, he realized it and confessed his sins to God and God forgave him.

What can we learn from King David – Sometimes, when we go through trials, we have to take a step back and assess our life to see if we have committed any sin or if we have an ongoing sin in our lives. God is a God of Justice and principle and will not give you a pass just because you are His beloved child so that you can sin anyhow you like. If you do sin and disobey Him, He will punish you as a good father will do to their child. It is our place to ask for forgiveness and turn away from that sin. The moral of the story here is that our sin can cause crises in our lives. Be mindful and take constant stock of your life. King David’s life was a life of up’s and downs – He lived a fascinating and adventurous life. Study his life in the first and second books of Samuel. 

The Israelites – Just like with King David, the reason why Israel went through trials and tribulations was because of their sin – mostly idol worship. The Lord loved Israel and commanded them not to worship any other gods but to worship the one true God; the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – the God of their ancestors. But the Israelites were very stiff-necked people as God will call them in (Exodus 33:5). When you read the Bible, you will see that the relationship between God and the Israelites was very up and down. God only asked them for one thing, and that thing was that they would not worship other gods, but it seemed like the Israelites had a very tough time keeping that commandment. God knew that when they worshiped other gods and sinned against Him, they would automatically activate curses on themselves. 

When we read the book of Judges, we see the “whiplash” that was going on – where the Israelites will sin and get in trouble, they will cry out to God, and God will deliver them – only to sin again and get into trouble, and cry out to God again – and, God will deliver them again. This behavior went on for a long time. Whenever a country dominated the Israelites, it was because of their sin and disobedience. But God always delivered them when they repented and cried out to Him by sending judges to save them from their adversaries. 

In the book of Jeremiah, too, we see how God pleaded with Israel to repent of their sins because if they did not repent, they were going to go into captivity. But the Israelites did not heed the words of Jeremiah and, in essence, the voice of God. And after twenty or more years of the warnings falling on deaf ears, the Babylonians came and captured the Israelites into captivity. 

What can we learn from the Israelites – Their crisis and trials stemmed from their sin and disobedience. In some parts of the Bible, you will read that they had a period of peace where everything was going well when they were obeying the commandments and doing all that God was telling them to do. When they sinned, they fell into the hands of their adversaries. When they repented from their sin, God was quick to forgive them. 

Trials Made to Prune Us And Build Character

Joseph – Joseph was a beloved child of Jacob. Because of the relationship between Joseph and Jacob, Joseph’s brother became jealous and decided to kill him, but one of the brothers spoke up against it, so they decided to sell him. Joseph was sold into Egypt. He worked in Pharoah’s palace and was working under Potiphar. God was with Joseph, and success followed him to the point that Potiphar’s household was blessed because of Joseph. But, Joseph went through some adversity where he was accused wrongly and thrown into prison for crimes he did not commit – but even in prison, God was still with Joesph, and he was favored with a high position in prison. Joseph had a fantastic gift of dream interpretation. After so many years in prison, Joseph was released because he interpreted the Pharoah’s dream, and because of that, he was given the second-highest position of all of Egypt. Please read Joseph’s story in Genesis chapter 37, and from 39 to chapter 50. 

What can we learn from Joseph’s Story – When we study the life of Joseph, we can see that sometimes our trials and crisis is preparing us for a greater purpose. God in His Sovereignty had chosen Joseph to be the one who will save his father and brothers down the road. Years before, God had told Abraham (back then, his name was Abram) that his descendants will become slaves in a foreign country (Egypt) for 400 years (Genesis 15:13) – So for that prophecy to come to pass, someone will have to go to Egypt ahead of time and be a “placeholder” so to speak. In Joseph’s dream, he said that his brothers would bow down to him one day, and that dream came true. But Joesph did go through adversity before God’s promises on his life came to pass; it was not a smooth transition to the top. 

Sometimes when we go through trials and crises, I refer to it as the “pruning season” because it is in that The Lord does His work in you. He builds your faith, perseverance, wisdom, and he makes you a good steward to the position He will appoint you to in the future. Sometimes the crisis we go through is our “training ground” for a higher position God is getting ready to put us in – most likely a leadership position. If you find that you are in your pruning season, pray and ask God to give you strength.

Sometimes We Don’t Know Why We Go Through Trials

Job – This is how the Bible described Job – “In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.” (Job 1:1 NIV) – So we see that Job was a man who lived a righteous life, he feared God and did not sin against God. But the story of Job has prompted many people to ask the question, “why do bad things happen to good people?”  

Job was a wealthy family man, but one day he lost everything he had – from his children to his properties. This event was not a coincidence. In (Job chapter 1:6-12) we see how the enemy and The Lord had a brief conversation about Job – the enemy told God that Job feared Him (God) because He has put a hedge of protection around Job and everything that Job has. So God gave the enemy permission to afflict Job but not touch Job’s life (Job 1:12). 

Job was stripped of everything he possessed, and the enemy inflicted Job with sores all over his body. The enemy thought that Job was upright and feared God because of the wealth God had given him. But when Jobs’s wife told him to curse God and die, Job said to her, “shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (Job 2:10 NIV). Thus, Job did not sin or curse God in all his misery and pain – he remained faithful to his God. 

Job had three friends who were supposedly trying to comfort him, but they just babbled, and one of his friends believed that Job had sin in his life for such calamity to come on him (Job 8). But, we see that God was angry at Job’s friends because they had not spoken the truth about God as Job had (Job 42:7). 

What can we learn from Job’s story – Will you love God only in good times, or will you also love God when things are not going well? 

We have to be careful with what we say or think about ourselves. “The tongue has power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit” (Proverbs 18:21 NIV). In Job 3:25, Job said, “what I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me.” So we have to use our speech wisely. 

(Romans 9:20 NIV) “But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?'” – Who are we to question God. 

We should know that our lives are full of trouble. (Job 14:1)

When a specific crisis arises, it is part of God’s plan. Therefore, in all things, God is in control. 

Nothing happens without God’s approval. The question is, what is the purpose of the crisis?

In short, the reason why the world is in crisis and we go through crises is because 

1. Because Of our sin, remember that one person’s sin can affect a whole community. (Joshua 7)
2. We go through problems or trials because God is pruning us and preparing us to work for Him. He gives us a first-person experience where we will acquire wisdom, knowledge, perseverance, and strength for our field of work. 
3. Sometimes crises in our life have a purpose that will not make sense to us – but in the unknown, we have to stay close to God and be obedient to Him – because God knows things and sees things we can not see. 

I hope this post will answer one of life’s philosophical questions. 

Why God Allows Trials And Crisis In Our Lives