Devo #3- Testing the Strong Ones

There is a song by the band Copeland that made me think of this thought:

Have you ever really been tested? When was the last time you really felt God testing you?

I feel like a broken record when I say that I have been tested because of the last few months but I really do feel like it has been a testing ground for me. I have learned things about myself as well as my wife that I probably would never have learned if we didnt spend every day together for the last two months. There has been something recurring in my thoughts, my reading and conversations that I have been having. The thought is that being comfortable is not always where God wants you too be. That has stuck with me  for a while, especially while I begin the final stages of deciding where Amanda and I spend the next years of our life.

I think being uncomfortable and being tested run the same course. When you are being tested, you are most likely uncomfortable in the situation. I think about Abraham with this idea. Abraham was tested in a way that I could never imagine, at least not yet. In Genesis 22, we see Abraham wake up to God asking him to do this:

² Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”

What would you say to God? If HE came and asked: ” hey remember that time you were way to old to conceive a kid, but I made it happen. Well now I want you to go and kill your son as a sacrifice to me, is that cool?” I guess he didn’t really ask, but yet commanded Abraham to do this. I don’t know about you but I may be pissed. I would not want to even think about killing my son.

But here is the amazing part, Abraham was tested and passed with flying colors. I wonder if Abraham knew, or maybe it is Faith? Abraham marched up the mountain that God pointed out to him and built an alter and bound his son Issac and lifted the knife to sacrifice him to God, when an angel said:

¹² “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

God spared Issac and provided a ram for Abraham and Issac to sacrifice to God.

Talk about faith, discomfort, being tested and succeeding all in one story.

You could also look at it from a different angle in the story of Jonah.

Jonah was called by God to go and preach to the city of Ninevah. Ninevah was kind of like the Las Vegas of back then. God wanted Jonah to go and preach to the Ninevites to turn away from their sinful ways and turn back to God. What did Jonah do? He cowered and went the complete opposite direction and tried to run away from God.

When was the last time you were tested?

How did you take it?

Did you succeed?