When Opposition Opens A Door

Ever feel like life’s hardest moments arrive with a pop quiz you didn’t study for? We flip that script. Tests aren’t teachers—they’re revealers. They surface what’s already in you and uncover whether your daily choices align with what you say you believe. Drawing on a candid school-days story and two grounding passages—Paul’s open door in the middle of opposition and James’s call to count trials as joy—we explore how resistance and opportunity often travel together and how endurance grows when faith is practiced, not just preached.
By the end, you’ll have language and tools to face trials without flinching: affirm God’s unchanging goodness, look for the work that resistance is revealing, and lean your full weight on the truth you already carry. If you’re navigating setbacks, uncertainty, or pushback, this conversation will help you stand firm and grow stronger where it matters most.

If this encouraged you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs hope today, and leave a quick review so more people can find these messages. Your support helps open more doors for good work amid the opposition.

Chapters

• 0:09 Welcome And Episode Setup
• 0:44 School Tests And Cramming
• 1:31 Tests Measure, They Don’t Teach
• 2:01 Biblical Lens On Trials
• 3:07 Faith, Obedience, And Endurance
• 4:45 Closing Blessing And Encouragement

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:09

Good morning everyone, this is Danny Max, and welcome to another episode of Starting Right. Today we search back through our vault and we bring to you an episode called This Is a Test, first broadcast of October 15th of 2020. I really don't enjoy tests, and I don't know many people that do. Well, today's episode tells us what tests really are for. I think you'll enjoy it. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back and relax as we help you start your day by starting right with This Is a Test. I think I'm like most people when I say that I never really liked tests at school. When I was in high school, I would do some studying and I would get through them, but when I got to Bible school, I recognized I had to work a little bit harder. So I spend the nights before the test trying to jam everything into my brain and hoping it wouldn't fall out when the test came along. And then I would write the test the next day and the day afterwards I think I forgot most of what I'd studied for, unfortunately. But I wound up miraculously passing all of those exams. Many people talk about the situation we're facing, and I've heard some people say, I wonder what God's trying to teach me in this test. Now I've heard that many times throughout the years. What is God trying to teach me in this test? I've discovered something along the way. I have discovered that tests are never to teach you something. Tests are always there to see how much you already know. Think about it for a moment. When you go and you take your driver's test, you don't get in the car and then say to the instructor, Okay, now tell me what to do. He'll just fail you and kick you out and say, Go back and learn the lesson again, and then come back to me and I'll give you the test to see if you know it. And God allows us to go through times of testing as well. Sometimes those times are are very difficult. Paul, in writing his letter to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 16, says this, beginning in verse 8 I will be staying here in Ephesus until the festival of Pentecost. There's a wide open door for a great work here, although many oppose me. One of the things about tests and trials and difficulties is that when we are going through them, there's often a tremendous opportunity to let what we do know shine. With every test, there's an opportunity to stand up for what you know. With every trial, there's an opportunity for you to overcome that trial and that test with the things that you know. We need to remember that God is not on trial during our trials. We are. In James Chapter 1, it says, Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow. For when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. As we face our challenges and our tests, as we are going through what is coming against us, God is not trying to teach us. It's what God is wanting to bring out of us. Many years ago, one of my Bible school professors stood up and said, Most Christians are educated way beyond their level of obedience. I have no doubt that most of us know how we should respond to our tests and trials. We know what God's Word says, we know that we need to trust God. We know that God will be good. We know that God will be strong. We know that God sees the beginning from the end. We know how God wants to work and how God can work. But instead of acting like we believe it, we act like we doubt it. We don't show the faith that we need to have. I I stored this one time from a post I saw on Facebook. It said, Faith is hard. You really can't have halfway faith. Either you have faith in God or you don't. There's really no in between. When you find yourself in a position where your faith is being tested, we have the opportunity to to dig down deep inside of us and to pull out the truths and the knowledge and the promises and the word of God and stand on it. So in that place where it looks like we're getting beat around, we can respond much like Paul did. Although there is great opposition, there's so many good things I can do and so many ways God's power can be with me. There's so many things that are better because of God than what I see around me. So remember this God will never not be good. God will never be less than good. Everything he does is good. And what he asks of us is trust him in the trials. Believe in him and act according to his word. And you will be blessed, and you will grow, and you will become stronger in what he has for you. Truly be blessed, my friends. Have a great day. We'll talk again tomorrow.