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REPLAY: BEING TRIED BY FAITH

April 8, 2026·30 min·3 clips

Pastor Angel Ferguson reveals that teaching faith is the very area where her own faith is tried most severely.

Ferguson opens by announcing a programming shift to more focused Bible study content within The Balance of Life. She shares a revelation she received while preparing: whatever area a person teaches and believes most strongly is the area in which they will be most severely tried. She applies this to herself as a teacher of faith, noting that her trust in God across every domain means every area of her life becomes a trial. She encourages other teachers and ministers to pay attention to what they preach as a map of where trials will come. She briefly mentions the ministry's school development program, which has been officially recognized by Florida's Department of Education as a religious college for eight years, offering curriculum on discipleship, ministry gifts, spiritual growth, deliverance, prophetic ministry, and leadership. She then begins the formal teaching on being tried by faith, using 2 Peter 1:3-11 as the primary text. The passage lists qualities to add to faith: virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity. Ferguson argues that each addition creates a new layer of faith and a corresponding level of trial. She applies this practically: believing in Christ is tried by challenges to the basic facts of the faith; developing virtue is tried by situations requiring one to stand firm under ridicule or hardship; gaining knowledge is tried by arguments against the credibility of Scripture. She references 2 Corinthians 10 on casting down thoughts that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God as the tool for handling knowledge trials. She notes that Ephesians 6 on the armor of God provides the equipment for standing under trial. She then turns to the Old Testament, examining Elijah in 1 Kings 17 as an example of layered faith trials. First, Elijah's declaration of drought to Ahab required him to believe God would fulfill a word he had not yet seen manifest. Second, Elijah arriving at the widow of Zarephath who had only enough flour for a final meal for herself and her son — and still telling her to make him a cake first — required both Elijah's faith in God's provision promise and the widow's obedience. Third, the widow's son falling ill and dying while Elijah was in the home created a third trial, met by Elijah stretching himself over the child until the boy revived. Ferguson notes a fourth trial — the return of the rain — which she saves for the following episode. She closes by encouraging listeners to grow into the kind of faith that Elijah demonstrated: believing God and acting on that belief regardless of circumstances.

As heard by us

A patient Bible study on how faith is tested, strengthened, and carried into ordinary hardship.

REPLAY: BEING TRIED BY FAITH turns The Balance of Life into a steady meditation on how belief gets tested. Pastor Angel Ferguson grounds the discussion in John 3:16, 2 Peter 1, and Elijah's story, tracing faith through virtue, patience, and endurance.

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Why you'd press play

You want faith teaching that shows how belief gets tested in real pressure.

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