The Test

“Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.”
Job 1:8 CSB

Wow! Really?! Surely God wouldn’t do that to someone who He loves, right? I mean how could a loving, gracious God ask Satan to test one of His own? For some reason as Christ followers we have bought the lie that when we enter a relationship with Christ all of our difficulties will disappear; it’s like we now think we have a cosmic force field from God placed around us, and our lives will be problem free. There is no place in the Bible that would lead us to that conclusion. But we act as though it is true. You see, it is the presence and experience of difficulties that deepens my faith and trust in God. It is only through the trials that my faith is tested and proven. James 1 says the same truth this way “Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.” It is the trials that show who I am really trusting, myself or God. That is what God was allowing to happen in Job’s life, a test that would determine who Job was trusting. And God is not afraid to use difficulties to reveal this to us as well.
As you are being tested by the trials you are experiencing? What are you finding out about who you are trusting?

-Pastor Tim