Why So Many Tests Lord???

We can all relate to having asked this question at one time in our lives..

yet so very few times we remain in the question instead of searching for the answer.  There are many tests that the Lord places upon us. You may recognize a few of them like the test of Trust, Faith, Endurance, Belief, The Judas Kiss and the one most of us are most familiar with.. Patience.

The first thing we need to keep in mind is that when God tests us, it’s not for harm but it’s actually for good. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us “For I know the thoughts I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope”. So you may be asking yourself why does God give us so many tests if He thinks good things towards us and wants to give us peace and hope for our future? We all know that testing brings up bad feelings in us so how can this be a good thing? It is through this testing in each of these things and more, that God shows us who we are now and what we need to change in order to be the person He created us to be.  But it goes deeper than this.

Without the Lord’s testing we will not grow and if we don’t grow then we can never hope to be made righteous in His sight and can therefore never make it to the next level that He desires to take us to. Without testing we cannot move forward and get to our Promised Land whether it be in our ministries or relationships. You cannot obtain a higher position in anything until you have learned how to deal with new things.

The test of trust teaches us to not hope for things in the flesh but to place our hope and trust in the Lord for what He wants for our lives. We are being taught to keep our eyes fixed upon the Lord in the Spiritual realm of things and not on the world in the flesh realm. With a fleshly focus we will set ourselves up for disappointments, remain in confusion and will fall by the choices we make; but with a Spiritual focus we will rise above our circumstances and have a clear mind to make good decisions.

The test of Faith teaches us to rely solely on God in every area of our lives.  I have a very sensitive stomach and I’ve learned to even ask the Lord what I should eat and what I shouldn’t on a daily basis.  There are times I have a craving so I will ask the Lord to keep me from it if it will hurt me and sometimes I just ask Him to bless it so it doesn’t hurt me. 

Trust and Faith are partners and when we start with Trust then Faith will follow and together the two begin to teach us WHO God really is and it shows us that God is FOR us and not against us. Then here comes the tests of Patience and Endurance.  These two tag team me often and I don’t like them at all.  They are probably the two hardest for me personally and again they too walk hand in hand together.  Patience is the most common one and yet the hardest for most of us but Patience produces Endurance. You will not go through a trial without being tested by these two..it’s inevitable.  If you think you can get around it, it’s not going to happen. 

God uses Patience to teach us to WAIT.. oh there’s another word we don’t like!  We whine and complain when we hear the Lord saying “wait on me”, don’t we? Well that’s our flesh crying out because it knows the Spirit is about to push it out and move into its place and it doesn’t like it; so of course we are going to whine and complain. But there comes a time (and it’s best to make it a very short time if you don’t want to prolong your wait time), when we must say Enough is Enough and stop whining and complaining and remember our first test of Trust and Faith and how they will help us overcome and learn Patience and Endurance. 

Are you seeing how this all fits together? Start using what you already know through Trusting and having Faith and you WILL obtain the Patience you need to wait upon the Lord.  We need to change our perspective of “waiting” means to us. Instead of seeing it as a negative, look at it as a positive and then you’ll be able to see that “waiting = God IS working”!  Isn’t that awesome? It’s amazing how that works to our advantage with the changing of negatives into positives.  And it’s when we see that God is FOR us and not against us, then we can see just how He is working in our situations. Now we may not be able to “see” the changes taking place that He’s working on our behalf just yet, but we can see God working in US! 

Check your heart and your mind daily through the trials you face and see if you are handling situations better or worse than before.  If we are handling things worse then we need to go back to Trust and Faith and strengthen ourselves to prepare us for Patience and Endurance again.  You will face the SAME types of trials UNTIL you learn the lesson God is trying to teach you.  He will NOT move you forward until you have learned it. So if you fight God with whining and complaining then know that the you have not learned and you WILL have to Endure more trials than He planned for you.

It took me a while to learn this one and I’m far from perfect and sometimes I complain and decide if He’s not moving fast enough then I’m just done!  How many times have we all thought about giving up cause it’s just too hard? But then one day I put it all together and realized that I’m just making this harder on myself by not Trusting and having Faith in believing that He will provide me the Patience and Endurance I need to wait upon Him while He is working on things for me.

If you ask me my favorite verse, I will tell you that it’s Jeremiah 29:11.  That verse has sustained me and made a huge impact on how I get through times of testing and trials. I hold it very close in my heart and call upon it often for strength, peace and comfort. The most amazing things about these tests I’ve mentioned is that they produce Strength, Peace and Comfort while you wait for answers!

The ultimate test is that of The Judas Kiss or the kiss of betrayal. This test comes in a time where you feel you have been let down, betrayed and abandoned by the person or people you thought were the ones that would never do that to you. This test shows you just where and in whom you truly believe and place your trust in.  It asks the question.. is my trust in man or in God? If it’s in man then you will recognize it through your emotions.  What are you feeling?  If you are feeling anxiety, panic, fear, anger, hurt.. negative thinking, actions and expressions in general.. then you have been relying on man or “signs” to get you through.  But if your emotions are of a calm nature with peace, hope, trust, faith, a smile and not a frown.. positive thinking, actions and expressions in general.. then you have done well in relying on God to walk through it with you. 

Deuteronomy 31:8 “And the Lord, He IS the One who goes before you.  He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed”.  God has not given us a spirit of fear but has given us a spirit of a well-balanced and sound mind. 

The only way we can obtain this is to walk through the trials and go through the testing that He gives us. 

So in closing.. if you truly want God to mold you into the person He desires you to be then you must be tested.  God will not take you to a higher level if He can’t trust that you can handle what He gives you. 

You must be tested over and over again until you get it right and can walk in His ways, follow His instruction, love as He loves and teach in His ways… not your own.

We must be willing to let the old pass away and allow God to refine us and make us new so that we are seen as righteous in His eyes.  That doesn’t mean we are perfect in the flesh but it does mean that are made perfect in His eyes through the discipline and obeying of His commandments and statutes for our lives.. and through His testing we learn how to tame our flesh.