Life is full of tests. When we pass a test, we celebrate because we have proven some progress or achievement.  Since tests cause stress, there must be a good reason for them. They aren’t fun; but they are important. Tests happen when it has become necessary for someone to prove something. So, passing or failing tests prove something about us.           God tests us. Sometimes severely, like Job. “But he knows the way I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). Or Abraham, who was told to offer“Isaac as a sacrifice when God tested him” (Heb 11:17). Or like the people of Israel, “For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs” (Ps 66:10-11). So, what is the purpose of the testing of the Lord? Do we really need it? David understood and wrote, “I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity” (1 Chron 29:17a). The heart is a tricky thing. It is hard to read. Hard to uncover. God knows what tests will uncover the true state of our hearts. “Test me, O God, and try me, examine my heart and my mind; for your love is ever before me, and I walk continually in your truth” (Ps 26:2-3). God tests our hearts to reveal to us whether we really love him and his truth (See 2 Thess  2:5-12; Deut. 13:1-5). We need such testing because we can fool ourselves into thinking our hearts love God when they really don’t.

We were created for God. We were made to love and serve him. In other words, –we were made to glorify God. And that is another reason he tests us. “See, I have refined you …I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another” (Isa 48:10-11). It would seem wrong for a loving Creator to leave his creation self-deceived when administering a test could help them see the truth about themselves and their Creator. So, God is very kind and good  to purify our hearts and help us focus on him rather than on ourselves. And to go onwards to our own destruction. What test is best to achieve this?

The greatest Test for sinners is Jesus. He reveals everything about us, coming near and interacting with us. He goes where no one else dares to go, yet in love. So we open our hearts to him and his light, even though we know it will expose our sin. “So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: See I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed” (Isa 28:16). This stone is Jesus. Peter told the Jewish leaders that they had rejected this Stone which God made the very capstone (Acts 4:11). And he wrote that “ to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, he is ‘a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall’” (1 Pet 2:7-8; Isa 8:14). We welcome the test of Jesus! .  “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12). To love Jesus is to pass the test.