Greetings Christ Church Missoula!
Grace to you and Peace!
The fifth reason Boston says that God brings trials to us is an interesting one. It’s reflected in verses like Psalm 19:13, “Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression.” The trial God sends us may actually be for the preventing of sins rather than a result of them.
The Lord has promised in I Corinthians 10:13 that He will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear. Of course, in the Lord’s Prayer Jesus directs us to pray that God will not lead us into temptation and deliver us from evil. Sometimes God uses trials to accomplish these things.
The purpose of these trials is to “wear off the varnish of some worldly object we thought we could not live without.” God “weans our hearts” from inordinate affections. Or to put it another way, the trial teaches us to abhor sinful desires in our hearts before they actually give birth to presumptuous sins. Trials, then, are seen as a grace from God that keeps sin from having dominion over us. This means we can be truly thankful for the trial because we would have been worse off without it. “It is good that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.” Psalm 119:71
His mercy endures forever!
Pastor Flynn