Bipolar Disorder
Trials, on the other hand, are an attempt to cause us to question the validity and certainty of our faith.
It is when we begin to question our faith or confidences that we are prone to the turmoil of our circumstances. Solomon writes in Proverbs 14:26, “In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge.” As trials rage against us, they are beating against the foundation of our faith, trying to tear away at the anchor that holds us through the storm. Satan loves to get us unmoored from our faith, because then we are completely subject to the waves of temptation and trial. This is true not only with regard to our faith in God, but also in relationship to any number of confidences that people may have.
A lost person may have set their confidence or faith in their family, their education, their career, theirtalents, or any number of other things. As long as these things seem stable and strong, they may have littletrouble with the drastic drifts of emotion. As soon as their foundation begins to crumble, however, they will be setadrift. People who seem to be stable fora long period of time and are suddenly struck with the emotional instabilitycharacterizes this issue. While onemight be tempted to say that a Christian, because their faith is in God, shouldnever have such and experience, they would be forgetting that most people havea good number of confidences that they lean on in life, even as believers. Tell me, if today your spouse died could youdeclare that you would have no emotional trauma? If so, then your marriage is probably introuble. It is, of course, the hope thatour faith in God is strong and will see us through the trial. It is precisely for that reason that Godallows trials: to help us to see theextent of our faith, or to see the exact placement of our faith at times.
The fact that temptations and trials work in opposite ways is exemplified in James 1:9-11.
“Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.”
Notice that in both instances there is movement. In the first, from thatwhich is low to an exalted position, and in the second, from that which is highto a depressed position. Temptation isthe upswing and trials are the down. Everyone is equal in the fact that they will either be tempted or trieddepending upon where they are in life or in different areas of life. A person who is poor will be tempted bypossessions and exalted position and even pride in their person as though theyhad made something of themselves. Yet inother ways, when a person feels they are on top of the world the trials that wearagainst us will try to bring us down. The question is, how do you endure the ups and downs of life which wewill all face? How do you endure thetemptations that seek to exalt you and the trials which seek to depress you?
