Where’s God in the Middle of My Trial?

When bad things happen, and they do, it’s easy to turn and blame God for what happened. Often, we feel lost and alone in the middle of our trials. Then, we start to think about God’s sovereignty and ask questions like, Where’s God in the middle of my trial?

Thankfully, we have a promise from Him: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Heb. 13:5, ESV. Yes, God won’t leave you when you go through your trial. God is always with us when we need Him the most. We can trust in His unfailing love in that respect.

The Apostle Peter wrote this amazing truth when he said, “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ”. 1 Pet. 1:7. What he shows us is how valuable the trial of our faith is; it’s more precious than gold.

Although God doesn’t cause our trials of faith, He uses them for His glory and our benefit; they produce eternal gold in our lives. Like the oyster, who through the irritant in it’s shell, produces a beautiful pearl, we, through the trial of our faith, produce eternal gold.

As the Apostle Paul said, “For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!” 2 Cor. 4:17, NLT. Light affliction? When you read what the Apostle Paul endured, it’s amazing he would call what he went through light?

But through the lens of eternity, the afflictions we go through, no matter their difficulty, are light in comparison to the gold produced by those afflictions in our lives. Or the trials we go through, if we look at them through the right lens, are light in the light of eternity.

That’s why the Apostle James taught, “Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials”. James 1:2, Christian Standard Bible. How could the Apostle James consider it ”great joy” going through difficulties of such immensity? By seeing his trials through the lens of eternity.

In sharing this great truth, three of the church’s greatest apostles agree: what we experience in this life is light when compared to the light of eternity. That’s why none of them complained through the trials they experienced. They knew what they experienced, no matter how painful, was working something far greater for them and in them.

John Newton, both a slave trader and slave, overwhelmed by the grief of his own sin, wrote an amazing song that continues with us today — Amazing Grace. Newton experienced that grace while in the depths of sin and it rescued him. And from his trials, which were great, we have an even greater eternal gold from that song.

That song, sung around the world, has touched and softened the hardest of hearts. Wickedness melts when that song is played. Men recognize the eternal gold hidden in that song when they hear it. Newton’s reward is growing, bearing even greater dividends year by year as men and women turn their hearts towards the sound of amazing grace.

So the next time you face a trial of faith, rather than seeing it’s tragedy, see the eternal gold it’s producing for you in the light of eternity. And remember that God is with you every step of the way, as you hum about His amazing grace.