Lord, save us from the testing. For the Colson Center, I’m John Stonestreet with the Point.

Every generation has its trials—events that test their character and prove what kind of men and women they are.

What is America’s next test? North Korea’s nukes? Our increasingly divided politics? The opioid crisis?

What about the Church? Christians in the Middle East, India, and China certainly know about testing and trials. Will American Christians remain faithful as cultural, political, and even legal pressures stack up?

These are urgent questions, ones which Jesus fully anticipated. He knew His followers would face persecution, even unto death. Within years, Peter would write that believers would suffer all kinds of trials that would “prove the genuineness” of our faith.

Inevitable as this testing may be, Jesus instructed His disciples to pray that God would save us from the “time of peirasmon” . . . that is, the time of trial. A testing that would tempt us to abandon hope, abandon faith.

So in the face of upcoming trials, let’s keep praying: Lord Jesus, save us.