Tested Faith

First have a read of Luke 22:31-32

"Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to test all of you as a farmer sifts his wheat. I have prayed that you will not lose your faith! Help your brothers be stronger when you come back to me."

Okay this is during the Passover meal when he's talking of when Peter will deny Jesus 3x. There's one word that strikes me in this, "asked". Satan had already asked for Peter, Jesus and Satan had previously already talked before about this. Satan has to ask, he can't pick and choose who he wants to torment on this earth. He has to ask. Do you know what this means? He has to ask God and therefore God gives his permission to torment people on this earth. 

Not sure if your face looked like this, but mine did!

But then again, if we look at Job, again same scenario. 

Job 2:3-6

³ Then the Lord said to Satan, "Have you noticed my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him. He is an honest and innocent man, honoring God and staying away from evil. You caused me to ruin him for no good reason, but he continues to be without blame."
 ⁴ "One skin for another!" Satan answered. "A man will give all he has to save his own life.⁵ But reach out your hand and destroy his flesh and bones, and he will curse you to your face."
 ⁶ The Lord said to Satan, "All right, then. Job is in your power, but you may not take his life."


Satan asks God for permission to torment Job, and God gives it to him!

But why?

Surprisingly enough, this isn't because God doesn't love us, and he doesn't care about us. This isn't because we've sinned, the only way that was resolved was through the cross. Job was blameless yet it still happened to us. It's nothing like that!

God still loves us!

Look back at Luke 22 above, he wants to put Peter's faith to the test. Faith? Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it. Hebrews 11:1. Our faith, our belief in JC, and his word and God, being sure of the things we hope for in the bible, and it gives us confidence in what we can't see like the holy spirit. 

When faith is being tested, its our belief, our confidence, our hope, assurance and declaration in God are all being tested too! It's not testing whether we can hold onto our earthly things but if we can hold onto our firm belief in God. Through whatever trial we go through, can we stay close to God?

But even in verse 32 of the Luke passage, Jesus reassures him saying that he will pray for him. (Baffling kind of why JESUS would pray? Maybe some sorta line of his baptism.) He knew Peter would be okay, he prays his faith will not fail him. And maybe he still prays for us now when we go through our trials and stuff. 

There's a bit from a video I want to copy here, totally related;

"There's no one who can condemn you, I don't and if I don't no one can. Who will even bring a charge against you, you're mine. What court could they charge you in, everythings mine!"

Romans 8:34 Who can say God's people are guilty? No one, because Christ Jesus died, but he was also raised from the dead, and now he is on God's right side, appealing to God for us.

Okay, so when we go through trials, we will come out the other end okay. But we also have a testimony and this is used to help others. I've found the worst times I've had, mean I can help others, and show them JC, which although at the time, it was awful, it had it's "silver lining". 

 Nothing happens without God's permission. This shows his CONTROL. This also shows that he will say our limitations, we won't get pushed further than we can possibly handle.   1 Corinthians 10:13  The only temptation that has come to you is that which everyone has. But you can trust God, who will not permit you to be tempted more than you can stand. But when you are tempted, he will also give you a way to escape so that you will be able to stand it. God won't ever leave us, and least of all during trials.
Also, i don't remember who, but I always tell them we learn best through bad times, we grow the most. Although you'd like to think that you grow more when you're going through a good time, it's the low times when you rely and depend on God and you learn and grow in him. Praising him in the storm is hard, but it's possible. Everything is possible with God. And finally: