Today’s Topic: Hey! It’s Only A Test!!!!
“In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson.” Tom Bodett
James 1:2-4 “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work, so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.”
Welcome to adult life. It’s a journey where everyday you are given a test that teaches you a lesson.
In stressful situations it’s normal to feel very anxious because you weren’t prepared for whatever you are now confronting. Back in our school days when exams came around some of us would feel a fear of failure bought on by the pressure, we put on ourselves.
Anxiety is very normal when faced with uncertainty.
What is the best medication for anxiety bought on by a stressful situation?
James tells us to consider it a gift from God. Why? Because when you are under pressure your life of faith is force into the open revealing the true you.
It’s only a test. I find that the most important tests in life are the experiences that we can learn from, grow, and apply in our walk with God.
James encourages us not to get out of any test prematurely. Go through and grow through so you can become mature and well-developed in every way.
Every test, every difficulty, every problem, every challenge, every tear, every heartbreak, every sleepless night, every test you dreaded teaches you a lesson.
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 “Our troubles are small. They last only for a short time. But they are earning for us a glory that will last forever. It is greater than all our troubles. So, we don’t spend all our time looking at what we can see. Instead, we look at what we can’t see. That’s because what can be seen lasts only a short time. But what can’t be seen will last forever.”
The next test you face allow it to change you on the inside forcing your life of faith to be revealed and at the same time it changes you to become more like a child of God.
We become “mature and complete” in Him at the end of the test not the beginning of the test. It’s the test result that marks the spot of maturity in God.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus “fell with His face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.”
The truth is Jesus Himself didn’t get exempted from test time.
We are all going through our own tests so that we may be “mature and complete” in our hearts for God. The breakup, the lack, the virus, not being able to achieve your goals, financial problems, chronic illness are all a test to reveal the real you.
We must have faith that God will help us with our own test as well.
Lesson 101: When you are under pressure what’s on the inside will come out. Make no mistake, mangoes when crushed don’t produce orange juice.
PRAYER TIME: Father, through every struggle in life you have been with us all the way. Make us mature and complete at the end of every test. In Jesus Name, Amen.
Amazing Grace 