JesusWalk Bible Study Forum: Q1. Testing Our Faith - JesusWalk Bible Study Forum

Q1. What effect does Satan want trials to have in our life? What effect does God want them to have? The effect really depends upon how we respond to the trial. Have you ever been through a trial that strengthens and invigorates you at the end? Have any of your trials inspired others or have you been inspired by another's trial?

The effect Satan wants trials to have in our life is to destroy our faith in God and in ourselves. God wantS them to have a positive and strengthening effect on our faith. The effect really depends upon how we respond to the trial. I have been through a trial that strengthened/invigorated me at the end although it took hindsight to really appreciate it. I am not aware of any trials that inspired others, but I have been inspired by others trials.

Q1 a: Satan, being a deceiver and usurper, would concoct a trial to lead away from God and would make easy a path of self-reliance, of faith in myself, of hope in myself...

Q1. b. God is my refuge and strength, my ever-present help. He would have me run to Him, cry out to Him for protection.... even when I totally brought the trouble on myself with my own folly.

Q1.c. Yes. I was laid off work and it seems like I wrestled constantly with the temptation to wallow in depression or become anxious. Struggling not to absorb the lay-off as a reflection of my own worth.... However, invigorating moments were praying and Bible Study time each morning, and with sharing with others, and offering to pray for them.

Q1.d. Yes. The God who spared Isaac, the God who parted the Red Sea, the God who sent Jesus.... He also sends ministering servants in my hours of need. He provides me opportunities to share with others of His hand at work. I attend church with a bunch of sinners. I go to small-group with a bunch of sinners. We study God's Word together and share of parenting trials, marriage trials, doubts , victories, fears, triumphs. We also mess up and hurt one another occassionally. I have been sovereignly reminded to "forgive" and my own brokedness revealed through the trial -- whether in the sharing with others, or listening as they share share.

What effect does Satan want trials to have in our life?
He wants us to be defeated, depressed and with a negative attitude.

What effect does God want them to have?
God wants our trials to strengthen us and to bring us closer to Him also, as to help us grow in the Fruit of the Spirit so we are able to show His glory, His character, and his love through our trails.

The effect really depends upon how we respond to the trial. Have you ever been through a trial that strengthens and invigorates you at the end?
Yes, of course . . . you can either turn bitter or better, what doesn’t kill you will strengthen you.
2 Corinthians 1:12
Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God's grace

Have any of your trials inspired others or have you been inspired by another's trial?
Yes, 2 Corinthians 1:3-5
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.

What effect does Satan want trials to have on our life? What effect does God want them to have? The effect really depends on how we respond to the trial. Have you ever been through a trial that strengthens and invigorates you at the end? Have any of your trials inspired others or have you been inspired by anothers trials?

Satan wants our trials to humiliate and destroy us and our witness and to discredit God.

God wants us to come out of a trial more refined like gold and He wants to be glorified in our lives.

I have been through some trials that have greatly deepened my faith. It has depended on my attitude some times. And it is easier to see in hindsight. But we live by faith and not by sight.

I am aware of one person who wanted to become (and did) a "babe in Christ" like me through some trials I was going through when I came to know the Lord. I hope there are many more.
There are many who have inspired me.

God Bless!
Jen
Numbers 6:24-26

Satan comes to kill, steal and destroy and is the father of lies. He wants to destroy us, especially our faith. This would kill our spirit. He would rob us of life and Life because He is jealous of our sonship of God.

God, on the other hand, wants us to have Life, and to have it more abundantly, so he uses any trial for good in the lives of the faithful. "All things work together for good to those who are called....." In other words, going through a trial with God only makes us stronger, and as we see how God deals with it, our faith develops and becomes a tree planted by the water side, growing in strength, even though it was as small as a mustard seed. With that faith prospering, everything else prospers too. Who would go any other way than God's way?

Even when I forgot for several years that I was a Christian, and was a long way from God, I went through a terrible trial, and guess what! It was the old Bible verses I had learned that made sense to me and saw me through. The verse that says "All things work together for good to those who are called according to God's purpose". Even in that state, the Biblical verse was great strength to me. It was wisdom outside of me. It was part of my foundations that could not be moved!

Doing things in spite of sickness has seemed to inspire others.

Seeing women struggling with terrible marriages with men who are not christian, and in fact are very negative about the faith, has been an incredible eyeopener to me. I have so much respect for such women.

Pastor Ralph, on Oct 21 2004, 07:27 PM, said:

satan would have us stressed out unto death

God would have us full of Joy unto life

Have you ever been through a trial that strengthens and invigorates you at the end? Yes, although some of the trials are not very joyous at the time, they all are strengthening sooner or later

Have any of your trials inspired others or have you been inspired by another's trial? Yes

Q1. What effect does Satan want trials to have in our life? What effect does God want them to have? The effect really depends upon how we respond to the trial. Have you ever been through a trial that strengthens and invigorates you at the end? Have any of your trials inspired others or have you been inspired by another's trial?

Satan wants us to think God has given up on us and the trials prove it! Then he can encourage us to think he will give us power and there'll be no more probelms!
God wants us to realize that He is with us in trials, that the trials (if we trust Him and follow His guidance) are to help us to grow in understanding and to be more able to be used by Him.
Yes, but it does take hindsight to understand! I don't know if my trials have inspired others, however my work on writing my book was used by God to inspire others.
I have been inspired by others' trials. Praise His Name!

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[color="blue"]1a.) The Life Application Study Bible has a great section on Satan's Plan in the book of Genesis. The 5 D's:
a.) Doubt - Makes you question God's Word and His goodness.
b.) Discouragement - Makes you look at your problems rather than at God.
c.) Diversion - Makes the wrong things seem attractive so that you will want them more than the right things.
d.) Defeat - Makes you feel like a failure so that you don't even try.
e.) Delay - Makes you put off doing something so that it never gets done.[/color]
1b.)  What effect does God want them to have?
[color="blue"]1b.) The 5 E's:
a.) Edify - To strengthen our faith in His Word and His Truth.
b.) Encouragement - To step out of the box to bring Glory to God.
c.) E - illuminate the good and to show the evil.
c.) Elation - to know the joy of His power thrugh His Son.
e.) Enthusiasm - to do the work of the Lord.[/color]
1c.)  The effect really depends upon how we respond to the trial. Have you ever been through a trial that strengthens and invigorates you at the end?
[color="blue"]1c.) Yes.[/color]
1c.)  Have any of your trials inspired others or have you been inspired by another's trial?
[color="blue"]1c.) I don't know, but I hope so...for His glory. [/color]

[font="Geneva"]Trials that God places before us give Satan the opportunity to implant doubts in our mind that God is a loving God—in order to separate us from God. After all, if God loves us, why does he allow these things to occur? Satan obfuscates God’s word to confuse us. [color="green"]“If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written… ”. (Mat 4:6)[/color]. Satan entices us with immediate relief—but at the expense of eternal damnation.

In contrast God uses the trials in our lives to strengthen our resolve; to teach us that perseverance—to bring us closer to him, and to use our character as an example to others. [color="green"]“Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing. (Jam 1:2-4) [/color]

I’m continually inspired by those who have overcome hardships of financial difficulty, health issues, marital insolvency and the loss of loved ones. I can only hope to rise and overcome obstacles as they did. Fortunately, I’ve not been faced with trials comparable to Abraham. Would I sacrifice my child if called upon to do so by God—I doubt it. How many of us could do that even if we knew we faced eternal damnation for our disobedience.

I don’t know whether my trials have inspired others, as I doubt my trials are visible to others. Unlike Job, I hesitate to reach out to others when I suffer—instead I endure and pray for direction (of course Job’s friends kept on insisting he must have sinned—so were they of help to him ).
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When we have trials in our lives Satan wants us to doubt GOD and his wonderful love for us. He wants us to lose our testimony and our direction in the Christian walk.

GOD wants us to come closer to Him in our trials and trust Him to bring us through those trials. He wants us to commit the trials to Him and trust Him to work out the problems.

Yes, I have been through trials that have strengthened me and have brought me closer to the LORD. He has been faithful to show His love and care to me through all of my trials since I came to know Him.

1.Satan wants our trials to bring DISCOURAGEMENT to our lives, so that we
will despair and complain about our walk with God and maybe for us to see
God in a different light, causing us to wonder where God is in our affliction.

2.The effect that God wants us to have in our trial is for the trial to refine us
and mature us into the kind of people God can use for His glory.For He knows
when we are tried, we shall come forth like pure gold and be fit for the Master's use. He wants to refine our character so that we will walk more closely with Him.

3. I have been through trials where my faith was tested. I would like to say
that I have seen victory in them, but I found myself struggling to understand
what God was doing, or questioned whether God was involved at all. But I
believe over a period of time, the result of these trials will become evident.

4. I am unable to say that my trials inspired others, but I most certainly have
been inspired by others who have given great testimony to the faithfulness of God in their trials.

Q1. What effect does Satan want trials to have in our life? What effect does God want them to have? The effect really depends upon how we respond to the trial. Have you ever been through a trial that strengthens and invigorates you at the end? Have any of your trials inspired others or have you been inspired by another's trial?


[color="blue"]Satan wants us to cower in a corner full of self pity, despair and faithlessness. He is a deceiver and his work is to lead God's children away from Him through his deceit. Whereas God wants us to fight the battle with His strength. God wants us to face the problems in life with a strong attitude saying, if God be for me, who can be against me!!! God wants us to come out of the fire with flying colors, purified and shining like Gold. [/color]

[color="green"]Yes, many times I went through the fire of God and came out without a hair being singed. I praise God for the mercy He has shown on me and for leading me through the dark valleys. I am what I am today because of His grace and mercy. I don't know about others being inspired by my trials but I am inspired by the trials my mother in law is facing right now. She has bone cancer and she is fighting it with the help of the Lord, without despair and not wallowing in self pity. She is a great inspiration for our family.[/color]

Satan would have us thinking humanly. He would wish us to have a worldly mind set on a human solution for our problems. Satan would like to break down our faith and destroy our peace. Our whole being has been affected by the fall: emotions, intellect and will. Satan will stop at nothing to destroy the transformation and the use of our new minds.

God, of course, would have us set our minds on things of the Spirit, to use our godly minds in faith to act upon facts and reason. God would have us think, think, think, but in a vastly different way than that of the world. When we put God first and trust and obey, we consider God’s ability and depend totally on Him.

Sometimes, during this particular time of transformation, everyday is a trial. As I set my mind on Godly things and become blinded to the world, it has sometimes been an uphill battle for me, or so it seems. My experiences, everyday, result in spiritual growth and a deeper insight into the person and promises of God. As we die each day to self we are strengthened. In one particular trial I have been confused and fearful, but I’ve prayed and I have faith that God will provide and He always does. I have seen prayer answered so many times that I don’t doubt that God will answer. I consider all that God has already done for me and it prepares me for the future. I have dealt with trials much better everyday or everytime one comes along. I believe I’m a more reasonable and peaceful person because of trials.

I don’t know that my trials have inspired anyone, but I can say that I’ve seen some other’s trials that have inspired me. It sometimes seems that God is moving so slow and the next minute, BAM!, there He is in all His glory answering prayer and giving us all a jolt! I don’t know about you, but no matter how reasonable God’s answer it still excites me!

[color="purple"]1. Satan wants to condemn us. He wishes to use it to show us that the word of God is not true, at least not for us, because how could God love US? How could we be that strong?. He wants us to stay down under foot and not rise up above him to our rightfull place bought by the blood of Christ.
2. God already knows what we can handle at the time, and will never put more on us than we can bear. I believe His intentions are to prove us to ourselves. Most people say that "I couldn't handle that.", but the truth is most people can endure anything that they have to. We just don't know how strong we are until the time comes. Then once passed we can look back and say, "Hey, look how far I've already come! This little problem now is a piece of cake!"
3. Yes, I have been through a trial that strengthened and invigorated me. Basically, my whole life up until a few years ago. Then I repented, and God has been revealing to me my place and His glory ever since. Passing through the darkness by His grace and love---well, I'm never going back!
4. I don't know if I've inspired anyone. Nobody knows the extent of my trials, as I was alone, but who knows. I've definately been inspired by others, and they don't even know it! So maybe someone has stood by and been inspired by me! We just won't know some things until the end, when all things will be revealed.[/color]

Satan wants us to think that God has given up on us. He wants us to believe we our going thru a trial because of some great sin in our lives or because we have a lack of faith. Satan's plan is for us to become discouraged in our faith.
God,however, wants us to come thru a trial with our faith strengthen. He desires that we seek him with our whole hearts during difficult times.
About a couple of years ago, my dept manager at the time was going thru personal problems at home, so she would take it out on me and others in the dept. I work in. She would give someone a task, then before they finished,give them a second task,and before they were done,would give them a 3rd task, and so forth. Then she would yell at the person because the first task wasn't done,accusing them of being 'a slacker' or trying to be
'slick'. She would expect someone to do what is normally a 2-4 hour job and get it done in about 15-20 minutes. Many times, she asked me to come in early or stay late and not once did she every thank me for it. One person in the dept put in her 2 weeks notice because she couldn't deal with the stress or pressure this manager was putting us all under any more. There were so many times when I wanted to give my 2 weeks or just walk out and not look back. However, this wasn't the first time I have felt like quitting a job because of one reason or another. However, I felt the time wasn't right for me to leave my current job just yet. I would pray to God about every morning to give me the strength to help me make it thru another day.
After about 6 months of being in a stressful situation at work, this manager ended up being transferred to another store. Those of us in the dept had a big party to celebrate. (Just kidding!) Anyway, I am so thankful The Lord gave me to strength and endurance to stick it out rather than give up and quit because our current dept manager is alot nicer and more easy going, plus she tries to treat everyone fairly and doesn't expect you to do more than what you are capable of doing.
There is a woman in my church who is going thru a difficult time financially.
She recently lost her job and is currently cleaning houses to earn some money. I've loaned her a few bucks here and there when she's needed it.
I've been in the same situation many times when I didn't even have a nickel to call my own, so I know what she's going thru.
Recently,someone who she trusted and considered a friend, stole money from her purse. I told her how terrible I thought that was and she told me the person would have to answer to God for the theft and she wasn't going to worry about it. Her attitude was a real inspiration to me.

Pastor Ralph, on Oct 21 2004, 09:27 PM, said:

Satan attacks and uses our singul tendencies and/or weaknesses. If we are true worshipers of God he tests our faith. God wants us to stand firm and when we feel tested or unsure to pray to him continuously. Have not had a trial that invigorated me but it did stengthen me and gave me hope. If any of my trials inspired anyone, I do not know and haven't heard if it did nor did not.

I'm sure satan would like nothing more than doubt, discouragement and defeat resulting in a weaker character whereas God would like strong, encouraged ( faithful) and unwavering characters who stand taller as a result of each trial. I'm in a trial where I know God is working for my good. I don't know all the reasons for the trial, but the main one is that it brought me back to The Awesome and Loving God whom I continually thank for the trial. Yes, others have been inspired by my long, on-going trial.

Q1. What effect does Satan want trials to have in our life?
Satan wants our trials to lessen our faith and cause us to question God.

What effect does God want them to have?
God wants our trials to strengthen our faith and cause us to lean more heavily on Him.

The effect really depends upon how we respond to the trial. Have you ever been through a trial that strengthens and invigorates you at the end?
Yes I have and God carried me through that trial. Without Him I wouldn’t have made it.

Have any of your trials inspired others or have you been inspired by another's trial?
A man in our Church lost his wife after being married for a long time. A week after burying his wife he was back teaching his Sunday School class. This man’s heart was broken, but his love for God kept him going. What an inspiration he is to everyone around him.

Q1. What effect does Satan want trials to have in our life? What effect does God want them to have? The effect really depends upon how we respond to the trial. Have you ever been through a trial that strengthens and invigorates you at the end? Have any of your trials inspired others or have you been inspired by another's trial?

Satan wants our trials to lead us away from God and God wants them to draw us closer to Him.
When my husband was dying of cancer I learned how faithful God is. I don't know that I would say I was invigorated at the end but I was definately closer to God. Others say they were blessed by seeing how I handled the situation.
Corey Ten Boom's story, has been an inspiration to me. Everytime I read her book, I learn more about Christ.