Reference: I Peter 1:6-7
Many times as we read the old testamentscriptures we find that all the old testament saints was put to the test to seeif they truly were sincere in their belief in Almighty God. Abraham, who iscalled the father of us all, was no exception to this rule. Abraham was triedin such a way that no doubt ninety some percent of confessing christians todaywould not pass the test as he did.
As we know, Abraham was told to sacrificehis only son that he loved dearly. God told him to go up into the mountain andoffer Isaac on the altar as a burnt offering. Reading the account of this timeof testing, we find out that Abraham was willing to do exactly what God hadtold him to do concerning his son Isaac. As Abraham was about to slay Isaac onthe altar the angel of the Lord called out to him and said for him to slay nothis son.
This act proved without a shadow of adoubt that Abraham truly loved Almighty God with all his heart, soul, mind, andstrength. We are told in God's word that we also will be tried to see if wetruly love God. The apostle Peter tells us that the trying of our faith is moreprecious than gold that perisheth. The trying of our faith proves our love forGod. If we endure the trials and temptations that we are faced with then we arerevealing the fact that we love the Lord no matter what we have to go through.There are many people in the world today who believe that being a christianplaces them in a position that nothing will ever bother them and that they willnot be faced with many hardships. These type of people are totally void of thetruth about how God will deal with them proving their love for him.
Jesus said that many people would honourhim with their lips, but their hearts would be very far from him. This ofcourse means that some will confess with their mouth that God is real and thathe can do all things, but this in no wise proves that they love him. True lovefor God can only be proven if we are faithful to the revealed truth as it isshown to us. Our failing to walk in and obey the truth of God's holy andrighteous word will easily prove where we stand in the sight of God.
Many times the christian will be facedwith situations where it will seem that Almighty God doesn't exist. God willput us to the test to see what we will do. There are many trying situationsthat we will be faced with that will actually help strengthen our faith as wego through them. We are promised in the word of God that we absolutely will notbe faced with more than what we are able to bear without the Lord providing away for our escape so that we will be able to bear the trial and grow strongspiritually.
The trials that you will be faced withwill cause your faith to grow if you do not let them overcome you and fail toconquer them. Going through the trials and temptations will increase yourability to believe more stronger in God and place all your confidence and trustin him no matter what the circumstances may be. Failing to go through a trialis done by your own way of escaping it. To provide your own way out of asituation is done when you are not willing to conquer the situation bycompletely overcoming the trial. To overcome something means to conquer thetemptation so that it cannot cause you to come under the power of it no more.As an illustration we can take the act of smoking cigarettes. We know that manypeople cannot stop smoking simply because of the fact that they won't gothrough the agony of abstaining from the taste of the cigarette. If a personwould make up his mind to completely stop smoking and fail to smoke anothercigarette, they will eventually overcome the habit and they would not smoke anymore.
Trying to abstain from tobacco is a verydifficult thing to do, but it can be done if we are willing to pull away fromthe strong desire to smoke it. This abstaining from the smoking habit is a verysuffering thing to the flesh and for this very reason most people fail toovercome the habit. We are told in God's word that we will be faced withtemptations that are only common to man. Christ himself was tempted with thevery same temptations that we are faced with and we know that he overcame everyobstacle of life.
Christ never yielded to one temptationthat he was faced with. He never sinned as long as he was on this earth. He wasthe only man that was ever able to conquer and overcome the power of sin. Noman before Christ or after Christ was able to live without sin in their life.We are told that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Althoughwe have all sinned and come short of the glory of God, this does not mean thatwe cannot live without sin. We of course can't live without sin unless Christis abiding in our hearts and living the life for us.
Every true child of God is given the powerof the Holy Ghost so that we through faith can live a life of righteousness. Weare told in Acts 1:8 that we shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost iscome upon us. This power has very much been misunderstood by most people in theworld today. Jesus said in his word that many would error not knowing thescriptures nor the power of God. There are utterly millions of people today whodo not know what the power of God is and what it's for in our life. We are toldin Peter's epistle that we re kept by the power of God through faith. ( I Peter 1:5)
To be kept by the power of God means thatwe are in Christ and Satan cannot do us any harm. We are told that Job couldnot be touched by the devil because of the fact that he had a hedge about him.This hedge was of course his faith and trust in Almighty God. Job wasconsidered to be a perfect man in God's sight. He feared God and eschewed evil.To fear God means that one will depart from evil and walk in righteousness.
We are told in God's word that he will tryus and prove our love for him. Every trial that we are faced with is nothingmore than a stepping stone that takes us higher toward the high calling of Godin Christ Jesus. These trials will many times consist of our thinking that Godis not with us, but these trails will prove what we will do if we think God isnot aware of what we are doing.
We may be able to hide many things fromman, but we can't hide nothing form the all seeing eye of God. Do you recallsome of the situations you were in when you thought God was not with you? Whatdo you do when you are faced with the fact that you have no food nor money tobuy any? What do you do when the rent is due and you have no money? What do youdo when you may get sick? Who do you trust and rely in when things seem to fallon your head?
The Bible tells us that "blessed isthe man who puts all his trust in the Lord." Who do you put your trust inwhen things go wrong? What do you do when you are tempted with the pleasures ofthis world? Do you abstain from them and yet knowing that God is not using youlike you wish he did? Christ is coming for a perfect church....