TESTS ARE ONGOING
It would be great if we could ‘arrive’ at some stage. I remember when I was growing up and during the years of my studies. In the city in which I live there are many Jacaranda Trees. These trees came out in purple blossoms every year at the same time I was writing exams. I grew to resent these beautiful trees as they always reminded me of the tough times of exams. This lasted until I was in my late twenties. Now that I am finally past that stage I can enjoy these trees and celebrate their beauty because I no longer associate them with exams. I remember thinking that my season of exams would never end. Although that specific season passed, there was always some other test or trial I was facing. The truth is we never arrive. There is always something else we need to learn, need to overcome, need to pass the test for and move on to the next thing. My Dad used to often quote the following scripture, even though it may have been a bit tongue-in-cheek.

Job 5:7 ‘Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.’

The tests of life are ongoing.

FIVE DIFFERENT TESTS WE FACE

A. THE WILDERNESS TEST
Moses was a man who faced this test. He spent 40 years wondering around the wilderness while God had greatness planned for him. The wilderness test is a test of time. When you face this test you go through a season where nothing seems to change. Every day it just seems like more of the same and breakthrough never seems to come. It is almost as if you wonder around aimlessly waiting for something that seems impossible and almost utterly unlikely. But God never forgot Moses and eventually called him out of the wilderness to deliver the people from captivity. During this test we can get discouraged and just feel like giving up. But don’t! Keep on doing the right thing and eventually your day will come. Don’t be like Abraham, who after waiting for years wondering through the wilderness of barrenness he made the mistake of taking matters into his own hands and the results were disastrous to this day.

B. THE FAILURE TEST
David was a man who faced this test. Although he had come through great storms and conquered Goliath, a bear and a lion, he had a weakness and this weakness eventually brought him to the failure test. It was the lowest point of his life. When we face the failure test nothing seems to work. Everything we try falls apart. You have heard the phrase: ‘Everything he/she touches turns to gold!’ Well you know this is not true for you. You may even be making comments about yourself that sound like this: ‘Nothing I do ever works!’ or ‘I better not try because in all likelihood I will fail!’ The trap in this test is frustration and hopelessness. This is what we must avoid. The key to passing this test is to try again and again and again. One day this test will be over for you and you will succeed. I have a weaver bird in my garden. He has been weaving nests all spring for his lady bird. He started on the end of one of the leaves of the palm tree and he weaved a perfect nest. It was a picture of engineering perfection. Along came the female and took one look at it and rejected it. He begun again about 20cms further up the branch and this one looked even better, she rejected it again and he is now almost complete with the third one. In his little heart he knows that one day the tide will turn and that female will see things differently and they will be on their way to a future generation. Have that same sense of knowing in your heart that God will come through for you and one day the test will be over and you will walk in victory.

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