Friction Factor

162/365

We wonder why we have trials sometimes. Like it or not, as any reader of the Bible can decipher, troubles are never accidental occurrences. Quite the opposite actually. Every day of our lives, every minute that we breathe, Satan is targeting us for sifting and our Almighty Savior is totally letting him do it.

Luke 22:31
“Satan demanded to have you…” – RSV

This is such a difficult part of the spiritual journey to walk through: Jesus, allowing His children to be broken. And, to top it all off, I do not see a passage where he appears to put up much of a fight for us. I’m sure that Jesus prays for us during these trials. I’m sure that He never leaves His knees during these seasons. But, the question remains, why does He grant the demand in the first place! Satan seems to all but do the bidding of God with full permission from the Most High.

Nowhere in the Bible does God promise to spare us from temptation. Challenges will come at us from all sides during our time here on earth, and God will permit such enticements. As was the case with Job, Satan will argue that our faith is never fully genuine unless it proves itself to be so. God has such confidence in His children that He will never shy away from a challenge; He will never rob us of the opportunity to reflect the heart of Christ in our devotion.

All this being said, all this fear being felt, one thing never ceases to amaze me: What the enemy means for evil, God means for good. Yes, He will let Satan have his way with us…for a time.

As it reads in Zechariah 9:16, “They will become… like gemstones in a crown, catching all the colors of the sun. Then how they'll shine! Shimmer! Glow!” We must all remember that gems cannot be polished without a little friction along the way.