THE PURPOSE FOR TRIALS
Acts 6: 1-7
The Lord gives a trial in the midst of his church for the whole church to unite as one. The Grecians were shown how quickly they would murmur, to teach the whole church, and us, that we need the visitation of our Lord every hour. Likewise, the Hebrew's were shown how quickly they would respect persons based on outward appearance to remind the whole church, us included, that our God saves by grace and is no respecter of persons. The apostles were not allowed by God to let anything interfere with the preaching of his word and prayer for his saints, showing the whole church, and us, that the Lord's word is the most necessary of all things if we would truly provide for the needy in the church. By using the church to provide the temporal need of the Grecian widows, they, their brethren, and we today are taught never to doubt the sufficiency of our Lord's grace--both in spiritual and temporal matters--all things are yours. And the whole multitude learned that God has a way of uniting the hearts of his people that would never enter our minds. The Lord turns Satan's darts of discord into a spirit of unity. The Lord works a spirit of forgiveness in us, whereby we overlook the shortcomings of our brethren, and he does it by showing us that there is not a bit of difference between any of us, save for his grace. Therefore, they showed they trusted the Lord, their pastors and their brethren by thanking God, by asking his blessing upon these men, and by sending these seven men to the task at hand.