“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.”
Exodus 15:22 Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah. And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.
There the Lord made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.”
Exodus 16:4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.
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.
Judges 2:22 in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the LORD as their fathers did, or not.”
Psalms 66:10 For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried.
Proverbs 17:3 The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the LORD tests hearts.
Jeremiah 9:7 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: “Behold, I will refine them and test them,
1 Peter 1:6-7 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Do you ever wonder why we face trials and trouble this side of eternity? Sometimes it is because of the consequences of others, sometimes consequences of our own doing, but in all things, it is allowed by God. God can do this to test our faith (genuineness), to refine us, to humble us, to teach us, to see if we will remain true, and to allow us to see what is in our heart.
Being tested is good for us. When we have been through a trial we can be vengeful, hateful, hurtful, prideful…. or we learn to be humble, hopeful, reliant, and thankful to God. We find what He means when He speaks of never leaving or forsaking us, for being our refuge, our strength, our shelter, our road and fortress, our hope and peace.
It is good to be found worthy of being tested and refined.
