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Hebrews 12:11a reminds us that “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful…” But tests are a part of God’s training program to teach us holiness.
How do we typically respond to God’s tests? Well, I can share from my own life:
- First, we ask “Why?” “God, this isn’t fair! God, you don’t make sense! Why, God?
You know, God understands our whys. David wrote, “I pour out before him my complaint; before him I tell my trouble (Ps. 142:2).” In the midst of the test, we can almost never understand why. And we beg God to give an account of his actions.
- A second typical reaction to God’s testing is to ask him to stop, to find another way. Jesus did that three times in the Garden of Gethsemane. He said, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.”
In the midst of the test, it’s hard to remember that it is for our good. We think surely there is some other way to do this, not requiring all this pain and difficulty.
- A third response to God’s tests is the feeling that God has forsaken us. Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” as he hung on the cross. Job voiced the same feelings: “If only I knew where to find him,” Job said; “if only I could go to his dwelling.”
It is natural to think that God could not be in this test, this awful thing. It feels like you cannot find God. You go where you used to go to find him—church, daily devotions, Bible studies—but you don’t get those good feelings anymore! Job said if he could find God, “there an upright man could present his case before him, and I would be delivered forever…” (Job 23:7).
But in the midst of a test, we often just cannot see or feel God. And it frightens us. Job said, “God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me” (Job 23:16). He realized he was in the midst of a major test, and he was scared. Maybe you’re in that same spot today. Read Job 23 and be encouraged.