Trials and adversity

Yet He knows the way I have taken; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.

Remember that these forty years the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments.

Some time later God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he answered.

⁶ For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.”

⁷ Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?

⁸ If you do not experience discipline like everyone else, then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.

⁹ Furthermore, we have all had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Should we not much more submit to the Father of our spirits and live?

¹⁰ Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness.

¹¹ No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by it.

See, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

¹⁰ For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us like silver.

¹¹ You led us into the net; You laid burdens on our backs.

¹² You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but You brought us into abundance.

Though You have shown me many troubles and misfortunes, You will revive me once again. Even from the depths of the earth You will bring me back up.

This third I will bring through the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are My people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’”

² Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds,

³ because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

⁴ Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.

Some time later, however, the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.

⁶ In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in various trials

⁷ so that the proven character of your faith—more precious than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial that has come upon you, as though something strange were happening to you.

And so when ambassadors of the rulers of Babylon were sent to him to inquire about the wonder that had happened in the land, God left him alone to test him, that He might know all that was in Hezekiah’s heart.

⁸ We are hard pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;

⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.

¹ If a prophet or dreamer of dreams arises among you and proclaims a sign or wonder to you,

² and if the sign or wonder he has spoken to you comes about, but he says, “Let us follow other gods (which you have not known) and let us worship them,”

³ you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. For the LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

In the day of prosperity, be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider this: God has made one of these along with the other, so that a man cannot discover anything that will come after him.

As for you, what you intended against me for evil, God intended for good, in order to accomplish a day like this—to preserve the lives of many people.

I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world!”

¹⁷ The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears; He delivers them from all their troubles.

¹⁸ The LORD is near to the brokenhearted; He saves the contrite in spirit.

¹⁹ Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him from them all.

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac on the altar. He who had received the promises was ready to offer his one and only son,

¹⁸ even though God had said to him, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”

These nations were left to test the Israelites, to find out whether they would keep the commandments of the LORD, which He had given their fathers through Moses.

¹¹ But stretch out Your hand and strike all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”

¹² “Very well,” said the LORD to Satan. “Everything he has is in your hands, but you must not lay a hand on the man himself.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the hardships we encountered in the province of Asia. We were under a burden far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.

In this way I will test whether Israel will keep the way of the LORD by walking in it as their fathers did.”

“Very well,” said the LORD to Satan. “He is in your hands, but you must spare his life.”

Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was engulfed by the waves; but Jesus was sleeping.

Soon a violent windstorm came up, and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was being swamped.

⁶ Even if I wanted to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will credit me with more than he sees in me or hears from me,

⁷ or because of these surpassingly great revelations. So to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

¹ These are the nations that the LORD left to test all the Israelites who had not known any of the wars in Canaan,

² if only to teach warfare to the subsequent generations of Israel, especially to those who had not known it formerly:

²³ After He had sent them away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. When evening came, He was there alone,

²⁴ but the boat was already far from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.

³⁵ When the skies are shut and there is no rain because Your people have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and they turn from their sins because You have afflicted them,

³⁶ then may You hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, so that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk. May You send rain on the land that You gave Your people as an inheritance.

² So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. The famine was severe in Samaria,

³ and Ahab summoned Obadiah, who was in charge of the palace. (Now Obadiah greatly feared the LORD,

Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.

Now there was another famine in the land, subsequent to the one that had occurred in Abraham’s time. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines at Gerar.

⁷ Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear His voice,

⁸ do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness,

⁹ where your fathers tested and tried Me, and for forty years saw My works.

A strong wind was blowing, and the sea grew agitated.

As they sailed, He fell asleep, and a windstorm came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger.

⁴⁸ He could see that the disciples were straining to row, because the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went out to them, walking on the sea. He intended to pass by them,

⁴⁹ but when they saw Him walking on the sea, they cried out, thinking He was a ghost—

In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. And a certain man from Bethlehem in Judah, with his wife and two sons, went to reside in the land of Moab.