TESTS IN THE SPIRITUAL SCHOOL

 

Tests in the Spiritual School

Verse for Today: Genesis 22:01

“Now it came to pass after these things God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham”. And he said, “Here am I”.

            God tests His beloved children in the ordinary walks of life according to His will and pleasure. God wants to test to see if His children are keenly committed themselves to Him with our love, commitment and loyalty. God is interested to know to what extent His children are growing in their faith in Him, His power and His promises. In order to prove their faith to themselves and to others around, God gives His children practical tests to evaluate and measure their level of faith. 

                God’s tests are not to trouble His children, but to measure the extent of their faith. He also tests to measure their weakness and to help them to know how their faith can be built up. These tests are given frequently and on a regular basis to keep His children on the alert about the extent to which their faith grows. He wants His children to expect tests at unexpected times to encourage them to be always prepared to face newer tests. God also wants His children to know that as time passes on, tests will be harder and harder because He expects them to become stronger in faith to go through harder tests to prove their growing faith in God.

                If we examine the lives of all God’s servants, we may find that they all went through innumerable tests, starting from the beginning of their spiritual lives. Abraham who is popularly recognized as the “Father of the Faithful” went through several tests in his life of faith. It started soon after He left the Chaldean city of Ur. He was asked to leave Ur and go to a land that God was going to show him. But he had to leave with his wife alone. He had the commandment to leave after forsaking his household. God gave him a Family Test, but Abraham started with his father and nephew. His father was old and so he could not travel fast enough to reach the Promised Land. His father seemed to be a snare because of which had to experience considerable delay in going forward. He had to stay back at Haran until his father Terah died. Abraham had to understand that God’s call didn’t include the household, but because Abraham included them along with him and his wife, he had to experience considerable delay (Genesis 11:31 – 12:1).  Later we find that the company of Abraham’s nephew Lot also caused considerable snag for Abraham to make progress in his journey (Genesis 13:5-9). These snags prove to us that Abraham sadly failed in the Family Test that God gave him. But God loved Abraham and allowed him to continue in the journey of faith. But God’s compassion to Abraham show us that He gave him more opportunities to go through different tests of various kinds in the future to prove the level of his faith.

                God was patient with Abraham and was willing to forgive him of his failure in his sojourn. But Abraham experienced delay in his walk solely because of his lack of full obedience. This delay showed Abraham that in spite of his desire to show his obligation to his family, God expected him to be fully obedient and loyal to God and His commandment. His divine call was most important. In His future walk, Abraham had to bear the brunt of such disobedience to God.

                Today God expects all His children to give utmost importance to Him and His call. Lessons from his failure in the first test taught Abraham that no matter what we lose in this world, we must obey God and follow the divine call. We must consider the divine call as a great privilege and be careful not to lose the opportunity to obey God and His call. We must be willing to lose everything else in this life while we obey His call.

                God calls His children to follow Him out of their love for Him. God expects them to follow Him out of their love towards Him. He expects them to express their obedience, reverence and commitment to Him in all that they do. He provides them with countless opportunities to express their love to Him. He also tests them to measure their love, reverence and commitment to Him. If we fail in it, He provides us with more opportunities to correct our ways and renew our love and sacrifices for Him. But our disobedience would cause delay and subsequently result in painful consequences for which we will be responsible.

Jesus reminded us that we must be willing to obey His call and be willing to forsake everything else to follow Him. We are expected to hold on to what we cannot lose and forsake all that which we are bound to lose.  

Luke 14:33: “So likewise, whoever of you doesn’t forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple”

Thought for Today

Holding on to what is dear to us in this world is illustrative of our unwillingness to solely follow the Lord.

Prayer for Today

Oh Lord! Save us from the temptation to hold on to what we have in our lives and help us to love You more than all that we hold dearest in our hearts. Amen!