TESTED

We read that the Lord God "tested Abraham" recorded in Genesis chapter 22. Do you think there was something about Abraham that God did not know? Do you think that the testing was a means of God discovering something about Abraham's character that was yet unknown to God? Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Do you think that the testing and proving of our faith is the Lord God needing to find out "what we are made of?" Not in the least. There is nothing hidden from God. There is nothing about us, past, present or future that is wrapped in mists of obscurity, hidden from the Lord. We are known through and through.

So, why does the Lord allow trials to come and "test our faith"? James writes: James 1:2-4 "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." Growing in one's faith means growing, changing, maturing, learning greater and greater dependance upon the Lord God.

A toddler has no idea how to handle life as it will present itself when he or she in 25 years of age. The kiddo learns to trust their parents, rely on wisdom and experience greater than their own to date. They learn who is reliable and who is not; whose word to take and whose to ignore. Difficulties or new, unforeseen circumstances become the classroom for learning what to trust and what to avoid. 

The New Life God has given to us in Christ Jesus is NOT something we know how to live. In fact, it's quite alien, heavenly, not earth-bound. We can forget that we are the sheep, not the Shepherd. He will lead us in ways we have never known, on unfamiliar paths He will guide us. HE will guide us as we are no longer our own; we belong to Him. 

We have to remember that our characters and natures were educated and developed in "going our own way", influenced by a world that has no reliable moral compass. We are going to experience change, radical change. We will need to embrace and recognize that we are utterly dependent on the One who has rescued us from sin and death by His death and resurrection. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews states in chapter 12 that, in the life before us, that long-distance race, that long obedience in the same direction, our faith depends upon Jesus Christ from start to finish. That is why we must learn to fix our eyes, our hearts, our minds and wills on Him.

As we follow the Lord Jesus, He reveals to us where our hearts have been divided, where we have relied on our own experience and our own insights for hope and security. The Christian Life is actually the Life of Jesus Christ being lived in us by the Holy Spirit. He has become Life within us. God, the Father, has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the Kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption by His blood, the forgiveness of our sins. Where our rebellion and death once reigned, our old nature has been cut away and we have been given a new nature, a new spiritual DNA, a new heart and a new spirit.

We experience trials new to us, surprise, we find that we've not learned to trust the Lord there yet. It is in the trial that the Lord teaches us, shows us where our hope and trust may have been grounded before, so our faith in Him is strengthened. In trials, our faith is "purified" as the Lord shows us old ways don't work. He is there, our Good Shepherd to show us that He can be trusted, relied upon, that His promises are eternal, and that He is absolutely committed to our becoming our best selves. It is in trials and struggles beyond us that we learn that God is faithful, that we are indeed His heirs, His own, and that nothing can separate us from His love in Christ Jesus.

An old pastor told me years ago when I was a new believer, 19 years old, that I would never lose anything the Lord had done or ever would do in my life. But that, because of His faithfulness, I would lose everything He hadn't done. Why would I want to cling to something the Lord had NOT done in my life? We are funny folk, though and too often rely on things out of habit that were never reliable before. In new difficulties, we learn to rely on the Lord, to wait, increasing in patience because He has promised that he would never leave nor forsake us. We learn that He is trustworthy in trials. He already knows the extent of and strength of our faith to date but is committed to us seeing where we are that we might trust Him more.