Growing Through Testing (James 1:12)
[James 1:12]
[2] ♠Blessed is he who endures temptation, for after being approved in this way, he will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.
Today is Lesson 26 of Purpose Driven Life, “Growing Through Temptation.”
This week I was thinking about 'training'. Man by nature does not like training. However, the reason we do not like it by nature and do hard training is that we cannot become like God without such training. If our goal is to become like God, then training is to help us become that mature. Training comes in the name of ‘test’ in our real life. There are two aspects of accepting the test, positive and negative. You cannot live without tests. The decision of the exam depends on what you choose when you meet the exam. And the depth of your personality is shaped by how you overcome trials.
We live through various trials. Just like going through various tests, each person's way of winning a test is different. One of the characteristics of people who do poorly in exams is that they blame others. Circumstances and circumstances may be difficult, but fundamentally, we tend to blame others rather than ourselves. The problem is that we don't see the possibility of winning the test because we can't see the essence of the test and ourselves from a fixed point of view all the time because of someone else's fault. Testing is an essential process that has made us who we are today. It is something that can grow through trials of various shapes.
In the Bible, we can see cases where life before and after life is markedly contrasted through trials. Moses and the people did. Moses lived a very comfortable life in the court for the first forty years. He lived while enjoying everything he could enjoy as a prince. After that, they lived in the wilderness forty years. It must have been difficult for Moses, who lived as a prince, to live in the wilderness. Moses may have lost hope for the future as he lived in the wilderness for forty years, unknown to anyone. I must have lived forty years when I couldn't stand it and wanted to give up.
In the New Testament, Stephen evaluated Moses like this: “Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was able to speak and do it (Acts 7:22).” But Moses was the one who responded like this when God called him. “Moses said to the Lord, “Lord, I am not fluent in words, and even after you commanded your servant, I am a stiff-mouthed and dull-tongued one” (Exodus 4:10). Since the Bible does not contain lies, both of them are correct. Moses was originally a man of excellence who learned his studies in Egypt and was considered by Pharaoh as his successor. However, no matter how excellent their knowledge and thinking, they lived in the wilderness for forty years and were not developed, so their former appearance would be as distant as a dream and dulled. After living like that for forty years, looking at himself, he had become a man with a stiff mouth and a dull tongue. For Moses, this was perhaps not humility, but the truth. But this was God's test with Moses. It was God's training.
As the result of Moses' test is said in Hebrews 11, “Moses was a man of faith” and “because he endured as seeing the invisible”. Forty years in the wilderness was a test for Moses, but it was only a training process for God. Although Moses was an invisible God through this test, he became a person who communicated with God as if he was always walking by his side. Through training, I have gained the ability to see the invisible God. Through the test, Moses was able to obtain these benefits. I have learned to endure any difficulties. He became a believer who was judged to be the meekest of all. Moses' patience through training was so deep that God couldn't see him and made him angry instead.
Without the time for training and testing, Moses might have continued to live as a man who could not bear his anger and beat people to death with his fists. He may have been heartbroken with good intentions, but the result may have been Israel's 'slayer'. Extreme training is unbearable, but the results after winning are huge. Moses was meek even in front of Pharaoh, who had absolute kingship, in front of the Red Sea, in the midst of a situation of chaos, even in the face of the Israelites who were angry that they would stone him to death. The meekness was possible because he had room to spare. Through training, his vessel was ready. A vessel to contain God's grace, which is given in due season, can be prepared through testing.
The Israelites, who were exposed without training and without testing, show the opposite contrast. Because the vessel through training was not prepared, it could not contain the grace that God poured out. There was no vessel to put it in, which only sparkled at the moment of receiving grace. Despite experiencing numerous miracles and miracles, and the tremendous privilege of seeing God with their own eyes, they had no choice but to die in the wilderness because of disobedience, murmuring, and resentment. If any of us are going through a severe test, I hope you enjoy it. The attack of temptation takes advantage of our weakest point of falling. However, any test is a discipline that makes us in God's eyes. Please believe that through this process, God wants you to stand as a child of pure gold, without blemish and without spot.
“I bless you in the name of the Lord that you will have a life that will overcome any trials.”
Prayer topic:
1. God promises not to give us a test we can't handle, but to give us the strength to overcome it. If I hold on to this promise, it becomes a blessing, and if I do not hold it, it has nothing to do with me. Think of any test as 'training' and I pray that the grace of the ability to overcome it will increase.
2. We will pray for all the autumn ministries currently in progress. We will pray for revival in the church and family through the purpose campaign.