Testing Times
It is remarkable how many things in life seem to require testing. It begins from our earliest days, when we taste food to see if it’s hot or cold, sweet or sour. As we grow older, the tests change. We try something on to decide if we will buy it or leave it for someone else. We check if someone is telling the truth, or trying to deceive us, joking with us or just unaware of the truth themselves.
When we begin school, we go through more tests—tests of our knowledge or skill, pop, mid-term, end of year, half-term—the list goes on and on. By the time we finish our first year of school we will have become experts of being tested, testing things, testing ourselves and testing others. As school continues each year, we enter different stages of being tested, often by strangers. Our musical ability is tested. Our athletic ability is tested, and our driving ability is tested. These tests make up significant and consequential milestones in our lives.
From school, we enter the world of work and meet a wide range of people from different backgrounds and viewpoints. The tests become more complicated and the consequences of failing them become more serious. If we marry and raise a family, each member of the family will grow and go through their own testing, and at times, test you. As the years go by, we may find the main thing being tested is our patience.
As we enter old age, our physical well-being is more frequently tested, and visits to the doctor become more regular than they were in our younger days. With aging comes a lessening of strength, stamina or even purpose. Loved ones near and dear to us pass on. This can test us all in many ways.
Our foundational beliefs, values or even our faith, can be greatly tested over the years. How we view the world, our understanding of what is normal and acceptable, will all be tested as we age and the world changes more than we like. It might feel like life is just all tests. But for those of us who are heaven born—working for and building for the kingdom of heaven, it does all have a purposeto transform us to the image of Christ.
- James 1:2–4 tells us that the testing of our faith produces faithfulness and patience.
- 1 Peter 1:7 tells us that tests and trials refine our faith, proving and purifying it like gold.
- 2 Corinthians 13:5 tells us to test ourselves to ensure we are walking in the way of Christ Jesus.
- Malachi 3:10 tells us God asks the Israelites to test Him in His faithfulness to provide for them.
In fact, every test that we go through as believers leads us to the point of deciding whether we believe God is faithful and worthy of our total worship. The greatest test we will go through is, do we trust Him at His word or not. This test will be revisited until the day when we see dimly no longer but know fully, even as we are known (1 Corinthians 13:12).
Tests never seem like fun at the time, but they show us much about who we are, what we truly believe and who we are faithful to. May you always be found faithful to the Heavenly Father and may you live in interesting rather than testing times.
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Chris Jones is the Global Outreach Director at New Hope Church. He longs for the unreached people of the world to experience the life-changing love of God and for people at New Hope Church to find fullness of joy by obeying the Great Commission.