Friday,
September 22, 2023
I dislike
tests; always have! Generally my reasons are two-fold:
1. Sometimes
(okay, a lot of times) I just haven’t paid enough attention to
preparation. There’s nothing worse than having your ignorance tested!
2. Nerves
– I hate anxiety, the kind of apprehension that, even though I have prepared,
and know the material, my mind will misunderstand the question, or my learning
will prove faulty…and I will fail even though I tried.
These two
reasons are why I have supreme interest-in, and deep admiration-for, those who
constantly put themselves through testing. To me it would seem
masochistic to put myself through the humiliation of a test if it weren’t
required.
On the other
hand, it is a healthy practice to measure where you stand when you’re trying to
accomplish something. And this was Paul’s point entirely when he strongly
suggested that the believers at Corinth take the examination of faith.
This church had a myriad of disputes, power-struggles and weird practices that
the apostle had to deal with. Their idea of what Christianity looked like
was more worldly than Christ-like, and Paul spent much time correcting their
mistakes. He now told them to self-examine for evidence that Christ was
indeed among them.
That
self-examination sounds an awful lot like what my Mom used to say to me when I
left the house – remember who you are!
Paul was reminding Corinthian church folk to remember whose they
are – they belonged to Christ, so He should be visible in their actions, daily
relationships, and attitudes.
I still don’t
like tests, and this testing of my faith in Christ – after more than fifty
years of following him seriously – is no exception. When I take an honest
look at the way I serve the Lord, the fail-points of
my faith can be a painful experience.
But I do it
anyway. And I’ve learned it’s not masochism – it’s healthy, because when
you look back and see how Christ has led you through difficult times, and how
you responded in faith here and there, and you see the different way you look
at things now than you did five years ago…understanding, like Paul suggested
for Corinth, that Jesus really IS among all of
it is, as the hymn-writer put it, Jesus leading me all the way[2].
And if I
wouldn’t take that test of faith, just because I’m afraid, or it’s
inconvenient, or some other excuse…how would I know where I stand in my
discipleship…how would I know if I’m growing in Christ? I’d be like the
farmer who chose to NOT plant beans, cotton or
corn because of weevils, blight or drought; he just wanted to play it safe, so
he skipped checking and preparing the soil, and planting seeds. He avoided
the disaster of failure, but how will he feed his family? And, if I followed his example, how would I
feed my soul?
For You Today
It’s a test
worth taking!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky
Road; have a blessed day!
There are about 2,600 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library.
(this post originally appeared as Taking the
Test of Faith, 6/29/2016)
Title Image(s) courtesy of WikimediaCommons.org
Images without citation are in public domain. Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT©
