Glory Seed Devotional’s, 2017: Anticipating and Experiencing Jehovah-Jireh...
Testing, One, Two, Three, Testing, Testing!
Shalom!
“Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you.” (1 Peter 4:12, NLT)
I am not sure A.W. Tozer had 1 Peter 4:12 in mind when he wrote the following quote in his book Knowledge of the Holy. “Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising and art acquainted with all my ways. I can inform Thee of nothing and it is vain to try to hide anything from Thee. In the light of Thy perfect knowledge I would be as artless as a little child. Help me to put away all care, for Thou knowest the way that I take and when Thou hast tried me I shall come forth as gold. Amen.”
When I get to heaven and if I am permitted to ask God a question I am going to ask Him if He knew me inside and out and if I couldn’t hide anything from Him why did He put me through all those fiery tests. If God knew I would pass or fail my testing why put me through them in the first place? Doesn’t make any sense, does it? But on the other hand, maybe, just maybe it does make some sense. After all, if God tests us He must have a reason, right? Right, I am sure God doesn’t do things just because He has nothing to do.
Try this on “for size” if God knows me as Tozer says He does, and if God knows the results of our testing then that means He’s not doing it for Himself he must have someone else in mind. And I am sure that someone else is us. God puts us to the test not to weaken us or somehow break us down instead God tests us to make us stronger spiritually, to build us up. It is unfortunate for both my family and me that pulmonary fibrosis is testing me but while I’ve gotten weaker physically I have gotten stronger spiritually and have gotten much closer to God.
While I think I’ve discovered the answer to my question above there’s another question that haunts me one that I will never get an answer for this side of heaven. It’s a prayer I’ve prayed many times, “God, wasn’t there another way of deepening our relationship?” And every time I utter that prayer the Holy Spirit always reminds me of, “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8–9, NLT)
I know the day will come when Psalm 119:75 as paraphrased by Eugene Peterson in the Message Translation when I will stand before God and say, “I can see now, GOD, that your decisions are right; your testing has taught me what’s true and right.” (Psalm 119:75, The Message)
“May God be merciful and bless us. May his face smile with favor on us.” **
Grace and PEACE,
Gary
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“Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.”
**Psalm 67:1, New Living Translation
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