Yuck. No one likes to be tested. Probably because being tested means being thrown up against the most difficult of adversities. They test cars and airplanes in re-created adverse weather conditions. Who would want to be in an airplane that hasn’t been tested against such?
I wonder how many times they drop phones, tablets and laptops while testing them in labs? Or how many times labs test appliances, both large and small, before they go on the market. Testing is important. I certainly don’t want to buy a slow cooker that doesn’t cook, or a pressure cooker that builds up too much pressure and explodes.
Often God will put us to the test. In Deuteronomy 8, Moses explained to the people why God had led them through adversity. “Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna…to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD…. He gave you manna to eat in the desert…to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you.” [vs 2-3, 16]
God brought His people through adversity so that in the end, it might go well with them. He exposed them to what was in their own hearts, and that wasn’t very pretty. He showed them their rebellion, their lack of dependence upon Him. In their testing they often came up wanting. Even Moses was disobedient at Kadesh and ended up losing the Promised Land.
But there were some whose hearts remained steady. Joshua and Caleb, to name two. They kept their hearts centered on God, and in the end, it did go very well with them in the Promised Land.
Father God, give us steady hearts like Joshua and Caleb. Center us in You. Amen