Why God Tests You
The purpose of a test, whether from God or from a teacher, is to provide an opportunity to demonstrate mastery, accomplishment, achievement.
We may not like the extra effort we have to make to pass a test, but think of the alternative: What if there were no tests?
If that were so, many would slack off and give less effort, and therefore wouldn't gain very much.
Moreover, if there were no tests, the impression easily gained is this subject must not be very important.
And should this be a school policy for all subjects, a student could easily conclude I must not be very important. They don't care whether I make any progress or not.
The fact that God tests you is because you are important!
Indeed, life is important! And your life will be better if you learn, advance, and grow—which is what these tests promote. Yet despite these truths, it is not uncommon for students to complain at test time.
Christians do the same thing when God tests.
We may find ourselves, in the words of Amy Carmichael, “discontent with the ways of God,” and then vent our discontent. But we would never do this if we understood the positive purposes of these tests.
Contrary to some of our unexamined assumptions, the Lord’s tests are designed to help us, always. On this point, F.B. Meyer, in his biography of Jeremiah, writes:
God graduates the trials of our life; he allows the lesser to precede the greater. He gives us the opportunity to learn to trust him in slighter difficulties, that faith may become muscular and strong, and that we may be able to walk to him during the surge of the ocean.
Be sure that whatever your trials and troubles are this hour, God has allowed them to come to afford you an opportunity of preparation for future days.
The trials we face are never random and ruthless, capricious in the way they come and cruel in the way they operate—at least not singularly so.
Those with malice in their hearts may have targeted us, but the One who has only love in His heart has a far better outcome in mind.
You should know, ever and always, that these trials weren’t sent because the mood of God suddenly turned sour.
G.D. Watson observed, “The history of piety will show that thousands who seemed to suffer most directly from the hand of God have been the very ones that loved God with a surpassing flame of devotion.”
Again, the God who administers these tests has nothing but love in his heart when He does so.
Imperative also for us to know is that during these tests we must take refuge in the Lord’s wisdom—for the Good Shepherd knows where He is taking us! We may be bewildered—at times, unable to make sense of it all—but the Lord has already made sense of it all!
Also imperative to know is that the fact God seems silent during a test doesn't mean he is mad at us, or that he is withdrawing from us. The teacher often requires silence during a test.
Misinterpreting this fact, and thus worn down by it all, our prayers, drained of inspiration, are greeted, seemingly, by a locked door and a thrown-away key.
We wish we were talking to a throne, but it feels like we’re talking to a wall.
Don't trust that perception. It isn't true. This silence has its purpose, as does the test itself. More on that in the next post.
