We need to understand the power of the trial. The bigger the trial. The bigger the trophy. Here are the three bees in Romans 12:12.
Romans 12:12 (NIRV)
12 When you hope, be joyful. When you suffer, be patient. When you pray, be faithful.
We want to move through ours trials quicker. Sometimes we have to settle into the trial to get the full benefit of it.
Sometimes we label the helpful haters because they want to help us change. If we only hang out with people who agree with us, how can we ever grow and get smarter. If you're the smartest person in your group, you're group isn't big enough.
We must trust that God is smarter than us. We must get close to Him to hear his voice, and closely follow His directions for Him to navigate us out our current predicament.
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIRV)
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Do not depend on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways obey him.
Then he will make your paths smooth and straight.
Self evaluation is a valuable tool. You are where you are because of the choices that you have made. Are you your own worst enemy? We don't take responsibility and blame others.
God will not take things from us that we'd like to keep. We excuse ourselves out of our own poor choices. The choices that you make will either keep you where you are, or will compel you to go where you are going.
You get to decide. Recognize that you are your own worst enemy. You are the biggest liar to you. It's hard to look at ourselves.
We like to coach others, but not ourselves. We've got some poison in us, but we blame God and others. It's you!
How do you know what areas of your life are toxic? Are you the problem within your trial?
You are what you eat. What are you constantly feeding upon? What are you watching and listening too? What are you gravitating too?
You can't constantly watch bad things, and have good things come out. We must feed ourselves. We crave what we're used to not what's healthy for us.
Romans 7:21-25 (NIRV)
21 Here is the law I find working in me.
When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
22 Deep inside me I find joy in God’s law. 23 But I see another law working in me.
It fights against the law of my mind.
It makes me a prisoner of the law of sin. That law controls me.
24 What a terrible failure I am! Who will save me from this sin that brings death to my body?
25 I give thanks to God who saves me. He saves me through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So in my mind I am a slave to God’s law. But sin controls my desires. So I am a slave to the law of sin.
You are a spirit. You have a soul. You live in a body.
When you are saved, your spirit is awaken by God. Your spirit is like the leaves of a tree. They reach out towards the heavens.
Your soul is like the trunk of a tree. It supports the leaves. The roots connect the tree to the earth. It is like our body. Whichever I feed more wins the day.
When you give your life to Christ, your spirit is awakened. It is the only part of you that gets redeemed.
You've got to keep the body in the back seat, and your spirit connected to the Holy Spirit. The more you feed your desires the stronger they grow. Spirit or body.
John 3:6 (NIRV)
6 People give birth to people. But the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
Galatians 5:16 (NIRV)
16 So I say, live by the Holy Spirit’s power. Then you will not do what your desires controlled by sin want you to do.
You've got to figure what your sin triggers are. The Holy Spirit will begin to call your hand on sin. That's called sanctification.
I am saved by grace, and when I am saved, my works manifest themselves. When you are saved, you must not follow your bodies, or it will create contradictions.
You crave the food that you eat most often. If your foods are replaced, the former cravings release and diminish.
You must sow obedience if you want to be blessed. You reap whatever you sow. Are you sowing bad seed and hoping for crop failure?
What's going on inside of you is coming out of you and is manifesting in your actions during trials.
The trial is coming from me. I must yield myself to a Holy God. Don't ask is this a sin, but ask is it a seed.
Is it a sin to listen to worldly music? Maybe not; however, if you sow worldly music into your life, what do you think will eventually come out?
Galatians 6:7-8 (NIRV)
7 Don’t be fooled.
You can’t outsmart God.
A man gathers a crop from what he plants.
8 Some people plant to please their desires controlled by sin.
From these desires they will harvest death. Others plant to please the Holy Spirit. From the Spirit they will harvest eternal life.
You've got to start looking at your lives through the seed lens. Here's why. Healthy things have to be cultivated.
Weeds just grow unattended. You've got to deal with the weeds before they choke out the good things.
Offer an alternative. Why not substitute Bible Study? Prayer? Go sow into somebody's life. Get the stuff out of your lives that God has delivered you from.
In a trial, we've got to get into God's word to determine if we put ourselves there. If I want God's all, I've got to give Him mine.
Lord Jesus, help us to have the discipline to give to you the things that we have kept from you, which created our trial. We give to you our whole lives.
Notes taken from Jeremy Foster, Hope City Church
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