God Blesses Those Who Endure the Trial

The great men and women of the Bible were put to the test by our God. Some realized it after enduring their trials and emerging victorious; others perhaps never found out, and God revealed those trials to us much later. What is certain is that responding as Abraham did when he recognized God’s will behind the test (sacrificing his son Isaac) shows an extraordinary degree of faith.

“By faith Abraham, who had received the promises, was put to the test and offered Isaac, his only son” (Heb 11:17). This is the measure of faith we all long for. To say, “Here I am, Lord, here I am; test me,” is in itself an immense test.

To know whether something is a test, one must be sensitive to God’s voice. The easiest thing is to “rebuke” the devil in the face of uncertainty (am I being tempted by the devil, or does God want to refine me through his tests?), though that does not always seem like a spiritual response, but a fleshly one. If there is doubt, the counsel is to seek God’s face in prayer and immerse oneself in the supernatural to understand what the Lord wants to teach us through the event.

God wants to see his children’s hearts when he puts them to the test, and at times he uses the painful method of humiliation. For forty years the people of Israel were put to the test by God in the wilderness to see whether they would keep his commandments (Deut 8:2). Through the prophet Jeremiah, God speaks to his people: Therefore, this is what the Lord Almighty says: “I will refine them and put them to the test. What else can I do with my people?” (Jer 9:7). God’s question is valid for the church of Jesus Christ today, in a context so hostile that everything seems to come from the devil. Take care, church! The test is tribulation and suffering, distress and bitterness, under God’s complete control, meant to bring the Christian to a higher spiritual plane and to an understanding of the need for constant, steadfast communion and relationship with the Lord of Lords.

If David had not been put to the test constantly, acknowledging his faults and rebellions against God and repenting of his sins, the Lord would never have granted him the privilege of being called a man after his own heart. Nor would Job have been restored, Elijah taken to heaven, or Daniel emerged victorious from the lions’ den. It is all about faith. The test refines the believer’s heart and causes faith to cross the threshold of the supernatural. Once a test is recognized as coming from God, it may be the answer you have been waiting for, and he wants to grant you the blessing in a special way. God blesses the one who endures the test with faith and strengthens that person to walk with confidence…even in the darkness.

No one has said that getting through the test is easy. Could there be a greater test than the wood and nails endured by the Lamb slain for our sins? Surely there could not. For the sake of that coming glory we will have in Christ, the undoubtable hope of our faith, it is worth living and even suffering. May the Lord always accompany us through the experience of his tests, steady us and strengthen us. In the Christian’s cross, the essential marks of a salvation won by grace and by the precious blood of Christ are, and will remain, the glorious trials of our beloved Redeemer in our daily walk.

May God bless his Word!