I Hate Tests

”By faith Abraham, when God tested him…” Hebrews 11:17a

God loves to test us. The reason why He does is it helps to reveal our character, not to Him, but to ourselves. God wants us to see that His ways work, all the time, through every circumstance, and that they are working in us. We don’t usually know this unless we’ve been tested. And God tested a lot of people in the Bible, so we are not alone. In Job 7:17-18, he asked God, ‘What is mankind that you make so much of them, that you give them so much attention, that you examine them every morning and test them every moment?’ Like Abraham, sometimes God asks us…

TO GIVE SOMETHING UP…

”By faith Abraham…, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son.” Hebrews 11:17

Abraham embraced the promises of God and now that he had finally received the promise, God asks him to take his son whom he loved and sacrifice him (Genesis 22:2). There were no further instructions and no explanations. This can be one of the features of a test - will or do you trust me? Genesis 22:3 says, ‘Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey.’ Clearly Abraham was being tested as to his first love. Again, Abraham kept the main thing the main thing - God was first, everything else, even Isaac, was an ‘else’. To many, this may seem cruel, but Abraham so trusted God that he knew God would provide. He even said to his servants, ‘We will worship and then we will come back’ (Genesis 22:5). This is faith in word and in action.

IT KEEPS US FROM GIVING UP.

”Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.” Hebrews 11:19

The reason giving something up keeps us from giving up, is passing a test infuses us with confidence and even excitement. We love doing what we are good at. And of course, God knows this, which is why He asks certain things of us - to ignite our faith. Abraham reasoned God could do anything and so what he was asked to do, as outlandish as it was, didn’t faze him - Abraham served the outlandish, miracle working, raising the dead, kind of God. The same God that we serve - so give it up for Him and we won’t give in.