This is how we know it is faith at work; amid the trial and temptation it does not look within but without. Faith never looks within but always looks away. Faith has eyes to look for God; it has hands to cling to God, it has feet to run to God; faith latches onto her object amid the time of trouble. As Calvin observes, “Our safety both in life and in death depends entirely upon our being under the protection of God.”

We don’t often think of trials as our servants. But surprisingly, they drive us from our insufficiency to God’s all-sufficency. Like a spiritual uber driver, they chauffeur us to God’s blessings.

One biblical example is in Psalm 16. It begins with an undercurrent of conflict; David is in trouble. We don’t know precisely what it is—but this isn’t important. We do know the trouble he is facing is not trivial. We learn from reading the end of the psalm that he is talking about a confidence even in death. So, the type of pressure that David is facing is not something common, like a neighborhood bully but something very serious like a real threat to his life.

This is felt in his opening plea in verse 1: “Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.” Many have observed that the language used here depicts one who watches over another’s safety (i.e. guards attending their king or a shepherd keeping his flock). David is looking at God as his mighty refuge.

This is how we know it is faith at work; amid the trial and temptation it does not look within but without. Faith never looks within but always looks away. Faith has eyes to look for God; it has hands to cling to God, it has feet to run to God; faith latches onto her object amid the time of trouble. As Calvin observes, “Our safety both in life and in death depends entirely upon our being under the protection of God.”

This difficulty he’s enduring drives him to cling to God. Whatever is ailing him, surprisingly, is actually serving him.

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