On Putting God To The Test Series

And it is so easy for us to come to God with one demand after another, prescribing tests that God needs to meet in order to prove himself to us.

God, I’ll worship you, if that person who bugs me isn’t there.

Lord, I’ll keep coming to church, if it always gives me a warm feeling inside. Keep it comfortable. Don’t challenge me too much.

Lord, I expect you to give me the kind of strong faith that will get me through any difficulties and make me happy all the time, but you have to understand that it’s just too much effort right now to do the work of feeding that faith. Bible Study and praying, those things are hard for me. You just take care of it, OK?

Lord, if only you would do this for me, then I would be happy. But then there is another if and another and another and another. Always bargaining, always demanding, always implying that God hasn’t done his part and needs to do more.

Huckleberry Finn told his friend that he tried praying once. He asked for fish hooks. They didn’t come. So, he figured he wouldn’t bother again.

And Jesus said “no” to that temptation right at the start. “God does not have to prove himself to me. I am here as a servant. I’ll obey and not demand. I will live each day as it comes to me and trust that God has already put into it all I need. I will love the people whom God brings into my life and not push them away while I dream of finding people who are easier to cope with. I will trust that when difficulties come my way God knows what he is doing. I will not turn my back on him. I will not question his wisdom or his goodness. I will not put God to the test.

Can you feel how this type of thinking turns things upside down, with us in God’s seat, and God expected to be our errand boy? Can you feel how easy it is to get into the habit?

But God does not leave himself above all accountability and God does not expect us to blindly believe without ever having a chance to see he is there. Actually the Bible says very clearly that there is a time and way to put God to the test and we are invited to do it.

In Malachi 3:10, God says to the people of Israel, “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.” God invites us to put him to the test by obeying his commandments in detail. Here he promises that we will see his provision if we present to him a full tithe, a full 10% of our income. God invites us to put him to the test, but only on things he has promised to do.

Jesus told us to forgive and then adds the promise that if we do, we will be forgiven. If you are tied up in knots inside with resentments against others and frustrations with yourself, put God’s promise to the test by choosing to let go of the resentments towards others, forgiving them. Sometimes that takes time and hard work, but as you do it, watch how your own sense of being forgiven and accepted by God will grow.