Valid Purposes for Trials

From Day 29 of Grief Bites

Why does God allow us to go through trials...particularly trials of longer length?

Deuteronomy 8:1-11 (have to read this)

The Bible shares with us that there are valid purposes for trials:

1.  To humble us
2.  To test us
3.  To know what is in our hearts
4.  To reveal whether we will keep God's commandments or not
5.  To humble us to reveal what we hunger for, whether it be good or bad
6.  To show us our great need for God's Word
7.  To show us His provision
8.  So we will know in our hearts that God loves us and cares enough about us to discipline us
     as His own-just as a loving parent disciplines his own son
9.  As motivation to "keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to
     fear Him"
10. To applicably teach us how to walk in His ways and to fear Him
11. To eventually bring us to a better place so we will be freed up to "bless the Lord your God for
      the good land which He has given you"
12. To free Him up to bless us at a greater level after we obey, walk in His ways, and fear Him
13. To teach us our need for Him so we will not forget to obey Him and we will not reject or neglect
      Him in the days to come

Trials are difficult and they truly show us what we are made of. They reveal the true condition of our hearts, what we think, and what we believe. They ultimately reveal what we truly think about God.

Allow whatever situation you are in to refine you...not define you. Allow life's trials to bring you closer to God.

Verses:

Lamentations 3:22:23
Through the Lord's mercies were not consumed;
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is your faithfulness.

Proverbs 3:11-13
My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord,
Nor detest His correction;
For whom the Lord loves He corrects,
Just as a father the son in whom he delights.

For Deuteronomy 8:1-11, its about the Israelites in the wilderness and most of those numbered points come from the passage

Happy is the man who finds wisdom
And the man who gains understanding