This week I have had to do some soul searching. Am I a fair-weather believer? When God doesn’t do what I want, will I get mad? Turn away from God? Turn off and check out emotionally? Quit asking him for help? Dear Husband’s recovery has been a slow, painful process that is hard to watch. Many times this week, I’ve thought of a family in our church facing the husband’s terminal illness. How do they keep serving, smiling, and being faithful? What have they learned that I haven’t in our much less severe and serious illness?
So I turned to Scripture to read how the saints in ages past met testings. Every hero of the faith faced testings, and many of them failed some of their tests. I discovered that God doesn’t allow tests so he can give us a failing grade. Nope. He allows tests in order to help us. I saw that the results of faith despite tests make us happier people. When we hold on to God in obedience and faith, we find him faithful to meet our needs. We become settled and peaceful for the long haul of life. We experience wholeness and well-being.
“to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you.” Deuteronomy 8:16
“I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you what is best for you,
who directs you in the way you should go.
If only you had paid attention to my commands,
your peace would have been like a river,
your well-being like the waves of the sea.” Isaiah 48:17-18. (The waves of the sea don’t stop and neither will our inner well-being.)
In another passage, the Bible uses the word ‘endurance’. We keep hanging on and putting one foot in front of the other – with a smile because we know God is changing us into better humans.
“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. . . James 1: 2-4
Holding on to God brings rewards now and in the future. We have so much good to look forward to!
“I will refine them like silver
and test them like gold.
They will call on my name
and I will answer them;
I will say, ‘They are my people,’
and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’” Zechariah 13:9
“God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.” James 1:12
Our faith can be tested by troubles. We have a choice whether to put our confidence in humans or in God. Often other people can help us. But who do we go to first? To God affirming our trust in his kind control? Or to someone who we think has the power to solve our problem?
“Because you have put your trust in the king of Aram instead of in the Lord your God, you missed your chance to destroy the army of the king of Aram. Don’t you remember what happened to the Ethiopians and Libyans and their vast army, with all of their chariots and charioteers? At that time you relied on the Lord, and he handed them over to you. The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. What a fool you have been! From now on you will be at war.” 2 Chronicles 16:7-9
Our faith can be tested by sickness. We are responsible to take good care of the bodies God has given us, including getting medical help. But our attitude must always be that God is the Great Physician and all healing comes from him even if he uses people as his agents of healing. The outcome is never in human hands.
“In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa developed a serious foot disease. Yet even with the severity of his disease, he did not seek the Lord’s help but turned only to his physicians. So he died in the forty-first year of his reign.” 2 Chronicles 16:12-13
Our faith can be tested by success. When our hard work and skill bring us a comfortable life, watch out! This, too, is a test. Will we become proud of our accomplishments, or will we acknowledge the One who gave us our abilities and the strength to use them?
“Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you. You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.” Deuteronomy 8:12-18
Our faith can be tested by lack. When faced with not enough, we can choose to trust God to provide in his way and time.
“When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!” John 6:5-7
Our faith can be tested by hardship. It’s easy to trust when things are going well. But it’s in the difficulties that we find out if our faith is genuine.
“Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.” Luke 8:13
Our faith can be tested by the difficult choice to obey or not. Doing the right thing is rarely the easy thing. But if we honor God, he honors us.
“By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.” Hebrews 11:17-19
In the midst of troubles, we have been so uplifted and encouraged by the kindness of our family and friends. Here’s a sweet example of a child’s loving heart that was medicine for our souls. PS. He grew and harvested these himself!
For further reading:
“Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. . . He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you.” Deuteronomy 8: 2-3,15-16