Title: Life on the Test Bench
Contents
♡♥♡ Life on the test bed / Jeremiah 17:9-11
*** Introduction
Modern English Bible Text / “The Lord has spoken about human nature. There is nothing more deceitful and unfathomable than the human mind. The human heart is full of lies and calamities. who can see through it? It is I, the LORD, who looks into the heart of man. No matter how deep a human wish may be, I already know it. It is I, the LORD, who repays a man according to his deeds. A person who accumulates wealth by dishonest means will be like a partridge incubating the eggs of other birds and watching the young flee. He will give up all his fortune in the best days of his life, and in his last years he will die empty-handed.
There is an old saying in our country, “You know a thousand roads in water, but you don’t know a person in a thousand roads.” The human heart is a mysterious place that even oneself does not know properly. The Apostle Paul also confessed that ‘regardless of one’s own desire to follow God, another heart that follows the desires of the flesh is tormenting him.’ There is nothing that God is more deceitful than the human heart and cannot comprehend its depth. The human heart is full of lies and calamities. who can see through it? He pointed out the sinful heart of man.
The problem, however, is that God sees through even the deepest hearts of humans that cannot be measured. It is said that God knows even the desires hidden in the depths of a person's heart. And he examines the thoughts and actions of his heart and repays him according to his deeds. Therefore, we Christians must be honest and faithful from the thoughts of our hearts. Even if the thoughts of the heart are not right, they should not lead to sinful actions. That is why Ephesians 4:26 says, “Be angry and do not sin, and do not let the sun go down on your anger.”
Hearing this, the pastor said that he felt a cold sweat running down his back in an instant.
Have you ever experienced a conflict like this?
But God said that He does not miss this movement of the heart and sees it. Before God gives something to a believer, he first sees whether he has the faith worthy of it and whether he truly trusts in God. He told Abraham to give up his son, whom he had at the age of 100. Joseph was seduced by Madame Potiphar, the leader of the Egyptian guard. It was with King Saul, with King David, and with Daniel and his three friends. Honor and power came to Jesus' disciples, and money came to Judas Iscariot.
God weighed their hearts against these temptations and trials. Some of these people passed the test while trusting in God, but there are many others who failed and fell down while following the world or chasing their own desires. Deuteronomy 8:2 says, “Remember that the LORD your God made you walk in the wilderness these forty years. He humbles you and tests you, so that you may know what your heart is, whether you keep his commandments or not.” In other words, living in the wilderness was a test of whether or not you were worthy of Canaan before God was given.
So are we today. God tests whether we are worthy to give what we have hoped for and prayed for. Only after passing that test can we receive and enjoy it. It is like when a child asks a parent for something, he thinks first about whether the child is fit to use it. A knife is a useful tool for mature adults, but a dangerous tool for children who are not familiar with knives. It's like delaying giving a knife to a child until he can use it well.
Let's look at Hebrews 5:12-14 (Joint Translation). “You should have been teachers a long time ago, but you are in a position to relearn the elementary principles of God's Word from others. I can't eat solid food and I still need milk. The person who should be breastfed is still a young child, and has no ability to distinguish between right and wrong. However, as they mature, they eat solid foods. A mature man is trained and has a refined perception of good and bad.”
Solid plants are not given to infants who are suckling. Therefore, believers are not to pray blindly to grant their wishes. We must increase the measure of our faith through prayer, the Word, worship, and service. You must diligently grow spiritually to become a spiritual adult. In this way, solid food will be given to you, and you will also be given the power appropriate for the given task.
A neighborhood kid scolded his mother to buy the sportswear when he saw the athletes in the gym in front of the school running in a row on the playground in their fancy sportswear. He also wore sportswear and went to the school yard to run. But after not being able to run even one lap, I was out of breath and said, “Mom! He said, “You can’t be a player even if you wear this.”
Perhaps the child thought that wearing good sportswear would quickly turn him into a player. Even Christians are not Christians just because they have a form. We must grow our faith in Jesus Christ. Faith is not something that someone develops. You have to work hard and work hard. We must practice our faith through sincere worship, daily Word and prayer as the most important things, and serving and serving.
Friends, will everlasting life and the precious and glorious kingdom of God be given without hard work, toil, and tears and patience? It takes a lot of prayer, material, time, effort, and patience to lead one life to the Lord. That's why Hebrews 12:1 (Joint Translation) exhorts us, "Since so many witnesses surround us like a cloud, let us also put off all the heavy burdens and the sins that entangle us, and run steadily in the way we are to run." . Running races are only ranked and ended only by passing the goal points. Our faith is also given the crown of life when we run until the last moment of our life. We must run until we receive the crown of life. That is why 1 Corinthians 9:24 says, “Do you not know that in the field all runners run away, but only one wins the prize? Run in the same way that you may gain.”
When a believer stops running toward the kingdom of God and turns to the world, he becomes a fool who loses his most precious life. So, in verse 11, a foolish person who cannot run toward God and lives in the world's way is compared to a partridge. A partridge is a 'quail'. This quail incubates another bird's egg, and when the egg hatches, the young bird goes away. If the saints live in a worldly way like this, they will lose all of them later.
Saints should not lead such a foolish life. The believer should think about the fact that all the thoughts and lives of his heart are revealed to God in every detail. It is useless to appear to people as a religious person. You must be recognized as a person of faithful faith by God who examines the heart and weighs the thoughts of the heart.
Considering that all of your life in spirit and body is under God's test, I pray that you will achieve a life that is approved by God as 'right'.