12 Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
None of us likes trials, at least those of us who are normal. But if we weather the trial the way God wants us to weather the trial we get a prize. When I was a kid, I rarely got the prize for athletic achievements. I was always too distracted during the activity to win! So prizes have little meaning to me. Or perhaps they have too great a meaning to me since I rarely received them. In the movie Meet the Fockers, the Fockers have set up a shrine to their son. Most of the ribbons are not for First Place, in fact, far from First. They do symbolize that he continued in the competition until he had finished. He did not quit before the end. He stood the test. In our faith journey, everyone who stands the test gets the prize. This is very different from earthly competitions where the top spots are the prized and rewarded spots. No one gets an NBA multi-million dollar contract for being the worst player on their High School team. We make judgments every day about the relative merit of each other’s achievements, about our own achievements. But those judgments are based on limited, momentary, vacillating standards. God uses a universal, permanent, unchanging standard when entering into judging. Trials apply that standard to the believer’s life, purifying our lives with the presence of God’s Spirit. If we draw closer in those trials, we are drawing closer to God. Then the purifying presence of God works in our lives. The closer to God we get, the less the imperfection of sin will be present. When we are in heaven there is no sin because we are completely in God’s presence. The closer we are to God here, especially during trials, the less sin has influence in our lives. You can’t be drawing closer to God and closer to sin at the same time. So in the middle of your next trial, draw closer to God. That way the trial can do the work in you that God intends.
The Arnold Journey 