Does God Test Us?

Wakati mwingine Mungu anakujaribu tu oooh…
Aone uaminifu wako
Aone utiifu wako
Aone Imani yako
Apate utukufu kwako *2

(English Translation)
(Sometimes God tests you
To see your faithfulness
To see your obedience
To see your faith
And through you to receive Glory *2)

These are lyrics to a song I love, “Utafurahi”, by Guardian Angel. The song promises Christians that they will find joy at the end of the day if they maintain faith through patiently pursuing holiness. Are you aware that happiness and joy are different feelings? Anyway, let me not digress.

The topic on my mind is BEING TESTED BY GOD. God has shown a tendency to refine and purify the faith of man. But he has also shown a tendency to reward man after giving man certain tests to see if man really and truly loved and obeyed God. The first man to fail such a test was Adam. Was the tree of life really a necessary addition to the garden of Eden if it had forbidden fruit? ABSOLUTELY YES!!!

We know Adam had not achieved the perfection intended for him because he and his wife Eve disobeyed God. The children of God are intended to be infallible yet Adam was fallible and vulnerable as he showed. Without the temptation to achieve independence from God’s control and guidance, Adam would have never known that he, deep within, did not have the absolute fear of God.

The first sin Adam and Eve committed was not biting the apple, but actually doubting God. A sin called slander. These two people believed a snake instead of believing God about the fruit. They accepted the theory that God can be evil and that God was withholding something greater from them. It was as if God was withholding their destiny. And because of Adam’s error, death came to all man. Luckily enough, we have the second Adam who is Jesus Christ and through whom all life has come.

The test by God was whether they would obey him. The temptation to bite the fruit came from the fact that man had evil thoughts that God could lie and that they could be greater without Him. The book of James tells us that God does not tempt us at all and cannot be tempted.

13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. (James 1:13)

Therefore, it is absurd for a man to lust after a woman or a woman after a man and to say “God created these things so we could look at them”. No brothers and sisters, he created temples for the Holy Spirit –temporary structures to hold the human spirit too but that will be replaced with a heavenly body. It is not God tempting you when a curvy woman walks on the road, or when you lust after a man with big biceps at the gym. IT IS YOUR OWN EVIL DESIRES CONTROLLING YOU.

Human beings have evil desires in their flesh since birth, and that through the law, God sought to teach men how to love but, under the curse of the law, we failed. But because of Jesus’ redemptive work on the cross, He gives us the Holy Spirit who guides them away from their sinful nature and to the things God desires to be done. It is said plainly throughout Romans and Galatians that the flesh does not and cannot please God and that GOD IS LOOKING FOR PEOPLE WHO WILL WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH. So when I say your evil desires cause you to sin, I mean it! And when they say that the battle is about flesh versus spirit, the Bible writers also mean it. And when they say the battle is for the Lord, they also mean it because the Bible says that God will provide a way out against temptation. He does not leave you alone in the battlefield.

Luke 22:40
40 On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.”


1 Corinthians 10:13
13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

As aforementioned, God does help us even in times of temptation and so we should always pray to Him that we may never fall into temptation. But when God tests us, what are the benefits of passing such a test? What attitude should a Christian have towards testing?

TESTS ARE NOT FOR THE SAKE OF THE TEACHER, BUT THE BENEFIT OF THE STUDENT.

As a teacher, you would not ask test questions because you need to know the answers. You would ask questions because your students need to know the answers. Likewise, God ordains tests for us, not for his sake, but ours. He ordains tests today just as he did in the Old Testament with the testing of his people, and in the New Testament with the testing of the disciples. From those who have gone before us, we find several reasons for tests in Scripture. And knowing that tests are purposeful, we can rest, understanding that the Master is fully in control of both the test and the outcome. God tells us that he never tempts us to sin (James 1:13). The tests we face are not designed to lead us to sin; rather, they reveal the sin that already lurks in our hearts, ready to show itself at any opportunity.

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 8:2)

Likewise, God knows those who love Him. He is patient, “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). However, a day is coming when he will test the minds and hearts and determine whether we are righteous or wicked:

Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and may you establish the righteous—you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God! (Psalm 7:9)

Trust the Testing

Not all tests are designed with the same purpose (and some we may never grasp in this life). But we do know this: God is good. And the clearest demonstration of his goodness was at the cross. In the face of every test, we can remember Romans 8:32: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” God is watching everything you do and tests you for your sake. Abraham and job passed their tests. And even Jesus resisted temptation in the desert. And angels in heaven were tempted but most wisely did not rebel. Temptation and testing are not mutually exclusive and are as apart as the East is from the West, but if God is to allow you to go through a difficult time, BE OPPORTUNISTIC AND PASS THE TEST, AND WITH THAT, YOUR FAITH WILL BE REFINED INTO GOLD.