Is your faith tested and tried?

Hebrews 11 is entirely dedicated to the “heroes of the faith,” such as Rahab, Abraham, Moses, or Joseph, among many others. These people lived by faith and not by what their eyes could humanly see.

We might expect these heroes of the faith to have only experienced fulfilled desires, miracles, lives where these miracles immediately followed prayer, and yet...we read in Hebrews 11:39, “All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised.” (the Bible, NLT) 

Their faith may be recognized and cited as an example, but not everything was rosy for them. Some of them were tortured; stoned; endured mocking, whippings, chains, and prison; were put to death; afflicted; mistreated. They didn’t always experience what had been promised to them.

The author of the book What Happens When We Pray For Our Families shares this: “Not all of our prayers of faith have been answered the way we wanted them here on earth either. (...) God, in His waiting to give answers to our prayers, was teaching us. 

(...) When God does not remove painful situations in our families, He has something far better than just taking them away. He is in the business of producing mature, deeply spiritual Christian giants of the faith of our family members. What prayers do we pray in times like these? Pray each thing, in order, according to James 1:2-4: “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

(...) Finally [I] was able to pray, “Lord, teach me all I need to know from all of this.” But by evening my prayer had progressed to thanking God for the tribulations which were bringing me closer to Him—humbly on my face before Him.” 

Even if God doesn’t answer all your prayers in the way that you hope, it doesn’t mean that He doesn’t want your good or that He isn’t interested in your life. But the challenge helps you grow and mature. So that His work in you may be perfectly accomplished!

Be encouraged, strengthened in all you’re going through. In the face of your afflictions, God has not yet said His final word!