“For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
“O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.”
John 6:6 He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.
Genesis 22:1 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
Deuteronomy 8:2 And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.
Deuteronomy 8:16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.
2 Chronicles 32:31 And so in the matter of the envoys of the princes of Babylon, who had been sent to him to inquire about the sign that had been done in the land, God left him to himself, in order to test him and to know all that was in his heart.
God tests His people by putting them in situations that reveal the quality and sincerity of their faith and devotion, so that all can see what is in their hearts. God allows the trial to be His method of purifying the believer as metal is purified in the refiner’s crucible. He strengthens their patience, matures their Christian character and He leads them into an enhanced assurance of His love for them. Through faithfulness in times of trial men become “approved” in God’s sight.
How and Why Does Satan Test Christians?
Satan tempts God’s people by manipulating circumstances, within the limits that God allows him, in an attempt to make them desert God’s will. Christians must constantly be watchful and active against the devil, for he is always at work trying to make us fall. There are four main schemes that Satan uses to succeed in the destruction of Christians:
- He tries to crush us under the weight of hardship or pain.
- He tries to urge us toward a wrong fulfillment of natural desires.
- He tries to make us complacent, careless and self-assertive.
- He tries to misrepresent God to us and create false ideas of His truth and His will. Matthew 4:5 demonstrates that Satan can even quote (and misapply) Scripture for this purpose.
