Building Your Spiritual Resume

I have a hunch that most believers think that the devil’s primary task is to cause us to fall into sin. He does that, but I am more convinced that the Devil’s chief aim for every believer is to discourage us. If he can discourage, defeat or hinder us in such a way that we decide it is easier to give up and quit than to continue to trust God, then he has won a major victory.

I have to be honest, it is sometimes much easier and less trouble to give up and admit defeat. It’s just one less hassle to deal with. It’s even easier to stop waiting on Him and do it on our own. Besides, doesn’t God know that I am in a big hurry?

Near the end of Paul’s life his advice to young Timothy was to:

“Fight the good fight, keeping the faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. ” (1 Timothy 6:12)

Where do we get the strength to carry on and not quit when things get tough or difficult? We get that strength from our past trials and battles. James says it best:

“Count it all joy/grace when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of our faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1)

The strength the Lord gives us is almost always based on something that He has taught us through trying and difficult times. Therefore a new difficulty is usually connected to a past lesson learned.

Have you ever said, “I remember when I went through this particular trouble and it looked impossible, but God miraculously saw me through and answered my prayer?” It’s through those times that the Lord is building our spiritual resume. If you think about it, an honest and accurate resume always includes credible and verifiable experience. So it is with God. It’s those past experiences where we chose to trust God that allows us to have the strength to carry on in the future, even when it is much easier to quit.

Paul so eloquently writes about the value of troubles:

“But we have this treasure (Christ in us) in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves…but we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” (2 Corinthians 4)

Every struggle you encounter is allowed by your loving Heavenly Father in order that Christ’s life may be manifested through your life. In other words, instead of quitting, trust God that the present trial is eventually for your good and His glory. God wants to demonstrate to you and to those you influence, that our sovereign God is in control and He has a purpose higher and greater than we can ever imagine.

So what is my point? I urge you to take hold of your ‘trial by faith’, and believe that God has allowed it. He will eventually make known His divine purpose. Look at your spiritual resume and remember all that God has done in the past. Ask God to see you through every trial so that He will make you stronger and will give you a clear and decisive path.

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For wer are a fragrance of Christ to God…” (2 Corinthians 2:14-15)