By Sidharth Mohandas
You’re facing some unpleasant circumstance: your pay has been cut down; you’re about to lose your job; there’s a delay in your VISA and it’s time for you to leave; there’s this huge loan you need to pay off and you have no money on you; you have to deal with annoying family members who keep nagging you all the time…
Scripture tells us that such trials develop something called perseverance. (Romans 5:3, James 1:2-3)
What is perseverance? The Greek word used for perseverance is the word “HUPOMONE”. This word comes from two other words “HYPO” (which means under) and “MONE” (which means remain). In other words, to be hupomone or to persevere, is to have the quality that remains true under difficult circumstances or the quality that does not give up under trial.
Romans 5:4 tells us that this perseverance leads to the development of character. I understood the meaning of this better when I looked into the Greek usage. Dokime is the Greek word used for character. This word was used mainly by goldsmiths to refer to metal that was proven to be of worth and purity. The true worth of the metal was revealed only when it was taken through fire. Weigh the metal before refining it in fire, weigh the metal after refining it in fire, and you will see how much of it was just dross…..and how much of it was real. All the extra religious fittings and pretensions of faith are consumed, and now we have uncluttered faith.
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:6-7)
Aren’t we thankful for trials and tribulations that expose the real faith, not just ‘talking’ and ‘singing’ faith!
Many of us never see this even after continual refinings from the Lord. We go back into the same questions, “Why is this happening to me?”, “Where is God in all this?”, “Will this never end?”
We need to take our eyes off the trial, and look at the end result. Higher pay? Better job? VISA process accelerated? Loans paid off? No! Rather the development of perseverance and thereby proven and tried character. This brings true joy!
Amen. Life is about our faith in God when there is nothing or no-one left for us to turn to. Anyone can praise God for a pay raise, but not many can praise in the midst of suffering, trials, or loss like Job in the old testament.
brother Sid,
Thanks for the post. The ways in which our Lord works out His great salvation into our lives is really amazing. We may not always be able to expect what the Lord wants to do into our lives next
God bless!
Thanks Sid!!
Amen and Praise God for trials!! God takes us through tough situations now so that we can face tommorow better. Really true!!
God Bless!!
My husband and I are going through such a trial right now. He was injured at work and has no money coming in and there’s huge holdups for workman’s comp and there is a real possibility that we could lose everything. I mean living out of our vehicles. But we continue to praise Him anyway because we are willing to lose everything because Jesus is all that matters. I’m not one to envy anyone but if there is anyone that I envy, it is the Christians in other countries who have nothing but they have a vibrant relationship with Jesus. They literally have to depend on Him daily and no matter how hard we might think we depend on him, we really don’t because we are not in that situation. (unless we live in a hut with mud floors and that’s it) So I am excited at this opportunity to get closer with the Lord and depend on Him fully because truthfully, without His help, we are toast!
It is during the difficult times that we can choose to get closer to the Lord and perservere, or just give up. I prefer to keep going, because at the end, Satan has to get out of the way.
Blessings!
What tue joy when we can see the real teasure!
thanks! meant a lot!