The testing of your faith...

I had a test in my history class today. Tests can be no problem, but sometimes they can be a huge pain in the neck. Professors have to give them to gauge how well the class, individually and corporately, are understanding the lessons he (or she) is trying to teach. But tests are really a pain for all involved...students feel like they have to cram through and know every last bit of information (often an accurate feeling) while professors have to go through and grade--and many times the tests, being imperfect or subjective (or both), are not any easier to grade than they are to take.

We have to deal with tests in life just like we have to deal with them in class. Trials and troubles come and we have to sludge through them, holding to the faith and not sinning, while at the same time facing things that feel insurmountable to us. Why do we endure tests? Surely God, unlike our professors, already knows our hearts and already knows that we love Him and desire to follow Him (as He has regenerated our hearts to be inclined toward this of His own accord). It seems like the tests of life should be tests that the apparently righteous should not need to take.

Despite all this, I must assert that the testing of our faith is not pointless and is something that we should be glad of, and not something that we should loathe. This is not to say that when something bad happens that we should leap ecstatically or that we must be happy all the time, but rather we should understand that the testing of our faith does have a purpose, and it is to produce perseverance (ESV, steadfastness) in us. In other words, the tough things that we have to deal with change us--molding us into better Christians who are better able to follow after Christ. That may not be something that we're just jumping with glee over at every given moment (nor must it be), but it is something that we can be appreciative of when we see it in perspective.

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. ³for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness." (James 1:2-3, ESV)

Luke