August 23, 2013

Judges 6:36-37 — And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said, Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said.

Myra and I are going through a few challenges at the moment. We have a couple of things going for us that provide a great protection — our shared faith, and our love and support for each other. All the same, there are things that take the smiles off our face from time to time. We’d appreciate your prayers, but that’s not what this devotion is about.
I woke up at 3:20 this morning with the sudden thought that perhaps God was testing our faith. Then I went back to sleep! When I got to my quiet time this morning, I got to thinking …
I don’t think God needs to “test” our faith. Not in the sense that He isn’t sure that we’re faithful, and needs to set us tests to see if we’re up to the mark. No, wherever “testing” or “proving” are used of faith it is in that sense of establishing and demonstrating quality.
God knows everything. So He doesn’t need to find out if our faith is solid. So who does? We do! Alexander Maclaren explains it clearly when talking about Abraham preparing, at God’s command, to sacrifice Aaron:

God does not ‘test’ us as if He did not know what was gold and what base metal, but the proving is meant to make clear to others and ourselves what is the worth and strength of our religion. The test is also a means of increasing the faith which it demonstrates, so that the exhortation to ‘count it all joy’ to have faith tried is no overstrained counsel of perfection.

I remember a time when Myra and I had a major life decision to make. I was convinced that I had a word from God.Myra wasn’t so clear. Then, one night, she had the strangest dream … a ladder into the void, and a voice saying “step out in faith”. She stepped out … and as she stepped, so the ladder stretched.
Both faith and the lack of it are self-fulfilling prophecies. As we take steps of faith, God delivers and faith is reinforced. If — we lacking faith — do not do our part, the response cannot come from God and our unbelief is reinforced.
We should not fear that God will test our faith, but rejoice. Faith raised to its highest is most highly rewarded. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego trusted to walk in the fire, and they were rewarded by the companionship of God. If we will walk in the fire, we will walk in the same company!