Grace and peace of our Lord, Jesus Christ be with you! Welcome to our column “Daily word for spiritual strength”! We continue our discussion about the essence of life. We have reasoned about two aspects of life – time and a goal. Every person live in this world for a certain purpose. None of us has come to this Earth by himself nor without a certain task. God is our Creator, so it’s Him who set a certain time of staying on this Earth and a certain task for each of us. God has implanted all necessary qualities into us to ensure the task will be fulfilled. As we mentioned, the closer we get to God, the easier it is for us to get to know His will and His goal for our life. Today we are gonna talk about life as a test.
- Life is a test.
Once we understand our life is a test, many questioned get solved by themselves and we can rejoice and enjoy our life. Those who understand that life is a test, they treat every difficult situation as an opportunity, not as an obstacle. The Bible often tells us how God tests His children. He is not doing it because He hates us nor because He wants to see our fall. Not at all! God puts us in test for few reasons. God blessed Abraham with a son first, then tested him asking to sacrifice his son on the altar. God allowed ordeals in Job’s life, then Job went through all that horror and bitterness. God is testing his children. Life is a test! By putting us in test God desires to teach important truths to his children. Without tests many truths remain unveiled in our life.
«You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or not. He humbled you, and allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you didn’t know, neither did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread only, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh does man live.»(Deuteronomy 8:2-3).
As it was mentioned, the main task of every God’s creature is to reflect God and show His nature. How does God achieve this? Through His word alone? Yes, God’s word transforms the way we think and brings reforms into our life. Meanwhile, the word is not the only tool used by God. He also puts our life in test in order to make us more like Him. The Bible says everything God has created was created for His goal. Even the evil (devil) was created by Him, so God uses the evil to achieve His goals. There is no evil in God, therefore the Bible says that God never tests us by evil. Meanwhile, there is the evil in this world who is full of anger at us. So God allows the evil to tempt us.
Why does the God permits tests in our life?
* God permits tests in order to bless us. Quite often we do not understand why we are facing one or another difficulties. When God had told Abraham to pick his son up and sacrifice him to God Abraham could refuse to do it. Meanwhile, God was testing Abraham. After Abraham had proved his faithfulness to God, God swore to bless Abraham. He promised Abraham to bless him even more and not only Abraham himself but also his descendants. God promised to bless Abraham’s seed. Our proper behaviour during tests has impact on us and also on our descendants. God puts us in test in order to bless! Tomorrow we are going to talk why else God puts His children in test. Peace on you! Rufus Adjiboje, pastor
