By Cynthia J. Bourne
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”
Exodus 16:4-5 (NIV)
11 For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems sad and painful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness [right standing with God and a lifestyle and attitude that seeks conformity to God’s will and purpose].
Hebrews 12:11 (AMP)
3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.
James 1:3
‘When the Lord Tests’ is a strange statement to hear. The Lord testing us? Surely not.
Surely all our struggles and difficulties are created and directed by our age-old enemy – Satan. This is true, but we do find in scripture that our heavenly Father will allow those called by Him to go through, to put us to the test as to whether we will trust Him and obey Him. In other words, God allows some of our struggles to prove how genuine our faith in Him is. And that’s where we find the children of Israel in Exodus 16.
The children of Israel have been travelling deeper and deeper into the wilderness and hunger has now set in. Our faithful God will feed them, but He wants them to trust Him enough to follow how they will be fed. If they fully trust their God, they will have food for their Sabbath day of rest. If not, they will go hungry.
To test gold or silver the assayer will put intense heat under it and then pour acid on it. Through this exercise, he can then see whether it is the genuine article. The same is true in our life walk with God. There is a saying which goes, “The acid of grief tests the coin of belief.”
The Word of God says, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” Our faith has to be tested, it has to be stretched or we will never know if the testimonies of our lips are the testimonies of our hearts.
Ask – Why would the Lord need to test His people?
Seek - Have you experienced the sense of failure in a struggle?
Knock -Heavenly Father, we come before you in all humility. We praise You God of strength and might. We pray that as we walk through the pathways of life and come up against struggles, difficulties and pressures, our faith will be made stronger as we put our trust in You to bring us out as pure Gold. Amen
(Inner Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash)
(Upper Photo by Jannis Lucas on Unsplash)