"Only God knows what will test your faith to the greatest"

So this last month I have been re-reading The Work and the Glory series. Right now I'm reading Volume 6: "Praise to the Man". (If any of you have not read this series I highly suggest reading it!). Anyway, while reading these books and all that the early Saints went through for joining the Church and not denying what they believe in. You would think that after all that they went through. The persecution in Palmyra. Moving to Kirtland only to be driven from there a couple of years later. Moving to Missouri and being driven from county to county until they were driven from the state. Then to move to Illinois and to form Nauvoo, and all the trials that happened there. These Saints went through A LOT! Many were left to wonder why is the Lord having us go through all of these trials? What more can we handle?

I won't go into the specifics of the part that I'm reading now, but I will say that the Saints were having to deal with a new trial...a trial that many would have a hard time accepting and overcoming. Joseph Smith was talking with someone and said the following to them: "Only God knows what will test your faith to the greatest". Why does the Lord give us trials? There are several scriptures that help illustrate this:

"...know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good." Doctrine & Covenants 122:7

"And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God." Zechariah 13:9

"Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of afflication." Isaiah 48:10.

So going back to the original statement that caught my eye: "Only God knows what will test your faith to the greatest". Each of us have our own set of trials...something that we struggle with and don't know why we have to struggle with it. It could be something that you really want, but are not able to obtain. At the time we don't understand why we have to go through it. But the Lord tries us to help us to shape us into the person that we need to be. He also tries us to see how faithful we will be.

In my life I know what my greatest trial is and what the Lord is trying to help me to be faithful with. Each of us have our own situation. If we can just look at it from this perspective, than the likelihood of us coming out on top is increased. We just need to have an eternal perspective.