“Blessed
is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the
crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.” (v.12)
Temptations
and trials often occur at the same
time. While there is a fine line between them, every very hardship holds the
potential to "makes us or break us." In
the Book of Job we saw how God allowed Satan to touch Job’s property, his
children, and eventually his health, to cause Job to deny God. But Job endured
the hardships, never once denying his LORD and was ultimately rewarded by God with twice what was taken from him (Job 42:10).
As Christians, this speaks to us loud and clear. That when a trials come, Satan will be there
to try and get us to (as Job’s wife suggested to him) “curse God and die” (Job
2:9). But fear not, for God will also be there to strengthen us through each
trial, and will reward those who diligently Him.
While it may be hard for us to "Count it all joy when we fall into various trials", we can be assured that God will strengthen us to endue the testing, perfecting the work He began in us.
The
Truth: "Be confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will be faithful to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." (Philippians 1:6)
