TESTS COME FOR THE FOLLOWER OF JESUS!

TESTS COME FOR THE FOLLOWER OF JESUS!

The LORD tests the righteous. —Psalm 11:5 

The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. —Deuteronomy 13:3

But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. —Job 23:10

For you, God, tested us. —Psalm 66:10

I tested you at the waters of Meribah. —Psalm 81:7

Testing will surely come. —Ezekiel 21:13

Do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness. —Hebrews 3:8

By faith Abraham, when God tested him. —Hebrews 11:5

 The testing of your faith develops perseverance. —James 1:2

            The testing of our faith shall surely come!  Testing comes to see “whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul.”  Is He truly first in our lives or are there any other “loves” we are focused on?  He knows all about us— “In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (I Peter 1:6-7).  Genuine faith is seen through testing!  Testing is the “gold standard” of faith.  Our hearts are tested to see if they are pliable and not hardened.  Testing matures the believer.

            Of course Job is the book where we see testing worked out in a person’s life.  Job is tested in the areas of:  loss of servants, loss of animals, loss of all his children, loss of health, loss of wife’s support, loss of friend’s support…  Job was being tested not because of anything he had done wrong, but he was being tested to prove the “gold standard” of his faith.  Our Lord had said of Job— ““Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil” (Job 1:8).  This was our Lord’s description of Job.  Wow!

            He said:

Wow!  How would our Lord describe you or me?  May we be faithful when tested!

Dear Father that I would have these qualities that You described Job to have.  May this be so in the power of Your Holy Spirit and in the authority of Jesus.