THOUGHTS ON THE LORD’S DAY
”Growth and maturity is the goal of every test.”
“He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant:
Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron: Until the time that his word came: the WORD of the Lord tried him.” Psalm 105:17-19
It was the testing of the WORD of promise over the life of Joseph that brought him to a place of maturity, spiritually and emotionally. With the fruit of that WORD, he was willing to wait without frustration, nine years for his family finally to arrive.
Spiritual maturity is when we hold on to the WORD of promise by faith as that WORD is being tested in the laboratory of our life. Emotional maturity is the ability to wait without scheming, screaming and manipulating our way to the ”throne,” our place of greatest influence, until the WORD of promise is fulfilled, in God’s way and in God’s time.
Spiritual maturity is not about your accumulated Biblical knowledge, longevity of your discipleship journey, or your position of influence. It’s your ability to remain faithful to God’s WORD, his daily will for your life, and your sense of destiny during the time of testing.
Tests don’t come because God doesn’t know something and wants to see if we can make the cut and be on His team. They come because He wants you to deepen your commitment and dependence on Him. It’s often said, “Without a test there is no testimony.”
The Holy Spirit is like our trainer or teacher giving more and more difficult tests so that we can achieve our maximum potential. The ‘test’ may be difficult, but by rising to the challenge, we find strengths and weaknesses that we were unaware of before, the only way to grow and mature.
This cycle of testing and victory never ends because there is no boundary to how much you can love God nor to how much He can love you. Since the individual soul and God are both eternal, this keeps the relationship developing more and more and becoming sweeter and sweeter for all eternity.
God loves all his children equally. His Son died the same horrible death for all who would believe. However, could it be that those children who love Him the most seem to receive the most testing?
In first grade, I discovered I did not like tests. Still don’t. I didn’t like being asked questions for which I did not know the answer. Little did I know I would spend the rest of my life going from one test to the next. However, without the test there is no victory.
That’s what has kept me seeking after Him since June 1951. Mistakes, I have made many. But thanks be to God I have passed every test because He gives us the victory! We simply have to show up for the exam. He does not just have answers, He is the answer. He is the slowest person I know to always be on time, but His presence is guaranteed on test-day.
“For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” 1 John 5:4