Trials accomplish a number of things in our lives, but perhaps most basic of all, they cause us to stop and admit our need of God.
If you asked me randomly on any average day, “Do you need God?” my answer would always be “Yes.” But on average days we don’t see that need too quickly. My body breathes in air. My phone calls for help. My money pays the bills. My brain thinks and allows me to talk through problems. Me, myself and I seem to take care of everything that needs to be taken care of, even if I know on a doctrinal level that I can only do those things through the grace of God.
But when a trial strikes, God makes it plainly obvious I can’t fix everything. In a trial, my body becomes sick so that it doesn’t work like it should. Or, my phone can’t access help. I don’t have enough money for the bill. Or, despite the best efforts of my brain or the most eloquent words from my mouth, the problem isn’t solved. It’s in those devastating, but necessary, moments that we are reminded of the truth we already know. We need God.
All through history, the people of God have been made to realize their need of Him through trials. God’s own people, the Israelites, needed Him to free them from slavery. They needed Him to get them across the Red Sea. They needed Him for water, then food, then more water. They needed His commands to organize their society, needed His strength in battle, and needed Him to establish them in their long Promised Land.
This isn’t only true of the Israelites. It’s a truth that evidences itself repeatedly in the Old and New Testament. In fact, the very arc of the Word of God can be boiled down to humanity’s need for him. We couldn’t even make it through the first three chapters of Genesis before we ruin everything, and God has to step in with a plan to redeem the creation that our sin has cursed.
While each Biblical character expresses his or her need for the Lord in different ways, I love how David described it in Psalm 27:1
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Some people suffer in trials for years. Some struggle for a lifetime. Some people face trials, the depth of which I can’t even imagine. But somewhere in the trial, no matter how big or how small, echoes the gracious, Biblical reminder - we need God.
Pastor Ken Kistler