There’s a huge difference between God testing us to see our faith or level of trust in Him and the devil tempting us.
Testings always come to us for promotion, to elevate us to the next level or phase of our life.
Each test passed makes us stronger in our Faith and more like our Savior. We must expect our testing periods and endure them with grace knowing fully well that they come to make us stronger.
You must realize that you are like a student in a school, and for you to move to the next class, an examination will be required. Only who pass the exam for level one will be promoted to level two.
In the Christian life, the tests are allowed by God to see where your heart really is. It wasn’t that God couldn’t provide meat for the Israelites in the Wilderness, He wanted to see if they had believed Him enough to ask Him for meat.
He wanted them to understand that the God who was powerful enough to divide the Red Sea and make make them cross the sea dry shod could do anything for them.
When He asked Abraham to go and sacrifice his son, his only son Isaac, He was simply looking to see his reaction.
Was Abraham going to believe that the God who could gave ( Sarah) his wife, a woman whose womb was already as good as dead a healthy child at 90 years of age not be able to bring his back to life if he offered him, or he is going to withdraw and hide his son from God?
Will God do evil, does He now accept human sacrifice?
Did God not command us not to kill? Can the same God who commanded us not to kill in the Bible because He values the sanctity of life send us to kill for Him? God expected Abraham to know Him enough to realize that this was just a test of his faith.
And thank God , Abraham did not fail this test, and the LORD credited it to him for righteousness.
Abraham was commanded by God to go and sacrifice his promised son Isaac.
The same son that he had waited twenty five years to receive.
But God has never accepted and will never accept a human accept a human sacrifice. He wanted to see if Abraham understood Him enough to realize that the God who commanded us not to kill will never ask him to go and kill for Him.
He wanted to see if Abraham trusted Him enough, and knew that He, God who was able to give him and Sarah a healthy son in their old age, can raise him back to life if he really offered him as a sacrifice.
God also wanted to know whether Abraham would withhold his son, the one he waited so long to get, from Him. And that would have meant that Abraham had something he couldn’t give to God. Something that he received from God that he now treasures or values more than the God who gave it to him.
As Christians everything we have were given to us by God. Do not be like that foolish man in the book of Luke who thought the increase he received in his farm was due to his hard work alone.
A lot of people today display how godless they are by the things they say. When you acknowledge them for the little progress they are making they attribute it to their hard work.
They tell you that they are working their ass off to make everything work out for them. You see someone who has the blessing of longevity and you admire them and they are very quick to tell you that they have lived long because they have good genes.
Others will tell you their longevity is because they eat well, or because they always exercise.
They never ascribe glory to God for anything they have, and they ascribe the credits to themselves because they are not deep thinkers.
For example, the one who is saying that he became rich because he is working his butt off or because he is very good at what he does, has forgotten that if God had tampered with his health he would not have been able to even go to work, let alone work his butt off.
This fellow has forgotten that there are people who can do that same job better than him but who cannot because they are dealing with some terrible health issues.
They are the ones who are never merciful because they feel they worked their way into becoming what they are, and so they want everyone to go and work like they did.
I am not saying that people should not work hard but, life is not the same for everyone. What works for you may not work for others so be merciful.
And the one crediting her genes for her longevity instead of giving glory to God has forgotten she was not the only child that was born by her parents. Many of the other children, her siblings have died even though they all got the same genes.
Not acknowledging God or giving the glory to Him was one of the sins of the rich young man in the gospel (Lk 12:16-21) and not only was he referred to as a fool by our Lord Jesus Christ, he was recalled from the earth for his attitude.
God wants us to acknowledge and give Him glory for all His blessings that we enjoy.
This is very important because if Abraham didn’t understand the source of his blessings he would have failed the test.
In the same way, if we do not realize that everything we have was given to us by God, we will struggle with Him whenever He asks us to do something for Him.
You reading this, if the LORD whispers to you today about the financial situation of your church, and asks you to go pay it off will you obey?
Will you not bind the voice of God and say it is the devil speaking to you if His request touches some very sensitive areas of your life?
If the Lord should tell you now that the woman you have been dating for the past one year is not your wife and that you will need to break up with her and stay single for sometime until He works out something for you will you trust Him enough to obey Him.
God may not ask us to sacrifice our children, or do certain things today but, the tests of faith is certain. And they come in various forms and sizes.The Bible says to count it all Joy.
