Being Thankful for the Little Trials

Here’s a little something I think we should all think about this Thanksgiving. Sometimes, it can be hard to make yourself thankful. God has His ways of getting us there.

 

1 Peter 1:6 says, “In this you greatly rejoice…” Peter is referring to the inheritance we have in Christ; the eternal glory that we will experience with Him. He then goes to say, “though now…” So what he is about to say is that even though you go through this, you should still greatly rejoice in that. Without reading ahead, you might think he is about to talk about all of the persecution we have to suffer as Christians. Perhaps he was talking about all of the great persecutions that the early church suffered.

However, that is not what he’s about to reference. He says, “though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.” Peter is not talking about great persecution here. If he were, he would have used the words “persecutions” or “tribulations.” He is talking about the day in and day out things we have to deal with as believers in a fallen world. These are more general problems we face as we are surrounded by unbelievers.

In preparation to teach my children about Thanksgiving, I again read the account of our Pilgrim forefathers (this time I read The Light and The Glory); of how they endured a torturous three month journey at sea, only to be met by an even more torturous first winter in Plymouth, where they lost nearly half of their number. Almost every family was touched by death. I would never desire to experience what they went through, but it is easy to think that it would be much easier to have a strong faith if I were in their situation. And there is truth in that. They had nowhere to go but to Him.

However, this type of suffering does not guarantee great faith. Just look at the Jamestown colony. When they faced suffering, they turned everywhere but to God. What made the Jamestown and Plymouth different was their faith. And the faith of the Pilgrims didn’t happen overnight. They suffered persecution at the hands of the Church of England. So much so, that they fled to Leyden, Holland. However, in Leyden, it wasn’t great persecution or tribulation they faced. Here, they faced the same sort of things we face; these “trials” that Peter spoke of.

 

William Bradford spoke of these trials in Leyden, where he said they were aging prematurely due to the long hours of hard work they had to take on just to survive (sound familiar? I know it does to me). He also mentioned that they—like us—had to fight the battle of losing their children to the culture. I’m sure if you could interview him today, he would tell you that the trials they faced in Leyden were every bit as difficult as the suffering they endured in America. However, had they not responded in faith to the trials in Leyden, they would not have been prepared for the tribulation in Plymouth. That is what we need to remember.

Peter said that “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.” What Peter is saying is that to endure this road called Christianity—to make it all the way to the end, where we will certainly go through times of great tribulation—we will need great faith. Therefore, we will need to learn to grow in these little trials we go through on a daily basis. We will need to learn to respond in Christlike manner to anything an unbeliever might throw our way. And lastly, we will need to learn to “greatly rejoice” no matter what is thrown our way.

So, as we are approaching Thanksgiving, I am thankful for the little trials that God used to get my attention on some things. I truly am. I would encourage you all to look back over the past year and be reminded of why God allowed certain things, and what He has done through them. As always, you should examine yourself to see that you are in the faith. If you have not responded correctly to some of these trials, perhaps you need to get things right with God today.

Happy Thanksgiving!