To Encourage You

1 Peter 4:12 “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you.”

No one likes a test.  Thinking back to my school years, nothing produced stress in that school setting like the fact that there would be a test the next day.  And the stress intensified the more unready I felt for that test. 

Tests do some things like nothing else in life.  For one thing, they reveal the truth about our preparation for that test.  We can drift along through school, for example, partying our time away, watching TV, having a good time with our friends, and spend very little time studying for that biology test that’s just around the corner.  We can act like things are going well with our school work. When someone asks, “How’s school going?” we can fool people with answers of “Fine!” or “It’s great!” But the test will reveal the truth. 

Tests, whether in a school setting, or in life in general, reveal preparation.  Rarely do people do well on tests if they’ve not prepared well.  In school, fortunately, unless there was the dreaded pop-quiz, we usually knew when the test was coming. Life is generally more complicated than this, as many of its tests don’t forecast their coming. 

For the Christian, Jesus promised that there would be trials with these words “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33). The Bible tells us that “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12).  And it is by way of  such tests, whatever they might be, that our preparation for those tests will be revealed.  If we have been walking daily with Christ, growing in our faith, spending time in prayer and the study of God’s Word, and obeying what we understand it to be telling us, we will likely pass the test.  We may be bowed, nearly overcome, and very perplexed, but like the great Old Testament figure Job, we will stand.  The opposite will be true if we’ve not prepared, however.

Jesus summarized this very well in His parable about two people who were building a house: “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it” (Matthew 7:24-27). 

So, how’s your preparation?  Surely there are tests coming, as Jesus has clearly warned us.  Are you ready?  May God help us to listen to the words of Jesus and put them into practice, for that practice is preparation for all the tests of life.