“You must remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you, and to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not” (Deut. 8:2).
Moses recounts the purpose of the wilderness and revealed that God tested them to see how they would respond. Unfortunately, they consistently complained and rebelled against God. As a result, they forfeited their promotion into the promised land. Again, the testing was to see how they would respond. Because they failed the test, a whole generation of Israelites died in the wilderness.
God orchestrates times of testing to see how we would respond. Tests locate a person. They reveal the true condition of your heart. The word “test” actually means, “A procedure intended to establish the quality, performance or reliability of something, especially before it is taken into widespread use.” Other words for “test” include “examination, experiment, check and trial.”
I travel thousands of miles on an airplane every year. I have complete confidence boarding a plane because I am very aware that before the plane was released for widespread use, it first went through a rigorous and exhaustive amount of testing. From the earliest stages of design, these tests were done to ensure its quality, performance and reliability to transport passengers safely to any given destination. In a similar manner, God tests us to see if He can trust us.
The apostle Paul shared how he was tested to be trusted as a messenger. Because of this testing period, he was free from pretense and false motives: “God tested us thoroughly to make sure we were qualified to be trusted with this Message. Be assured that when we speak to you we’re not after crowd approval—only God approval. Since we’ve been put through that battery of tests, you’re guaranteed that both we and the Message are free of error, mixed motives, or hidden agendas” (1 Thess. 2:3–5, MSG).
How you respond or react under pressure reveals the real you. Just like the Israelites, we all have life-defining moments. They are like open-book tests, but we don’t know we have been examined until it is over.
Can you be trusted? {eoa}
John Bevere and his wife, Lisa Bevere, are the founders of Messengers International. A minister and best-selling author, John delivers messages of uncompromising truth. His resources have been translated into over 100 languages, and millions of copies have been given to pastors and leaders worldwide. John’s past two books, Good or God? and Driven by Eternity, have each sold over 100,000 copies within the first six months of release. When he’s home, John tries to convince Lisa to take up golf and spends time with his four sons, daughter-in-law and grandbabies.
This article originally appeared at messengerinternational.org.
