Tested and Blessed

You have 100% attendance for your classes. You’ve learnt your lessons. You even stand a chance of being the gold medallist. But, if you don’t appear for the exams, there’s no way you can even earn your degree. Without clearing your exams, you can’t move on to the next class. Neither can we mature in life unless we clear ‘tests’.

I believe God uses trials and tests as a means to bless us. That’s what we read in James 1:12. It says, “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.”

Need an example? Read Job 1:8. Note that Satan did not come up with the idea and ask for God’s approval. God offers the suggestion. Why not Job? Soon, Job lost all that he could – wealth, health, children, true friends, and loved ones. He really had a hard time. It’s scary to even imagine ourselves in his shoes. But wait, the story didn’t end there! God blessed the later part of his life more than the first (Job 42:10-16). When God handed all of Job’s possessions over to Satan (Job 1:12), and when Satan decided to do the best job with what God just handed over to him, Satan perhaps had no clue of what is to come. But God had this later part is mind when he asked Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job?” Job seems to have got this right when he said, "when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” (Job 23:10) You have seen Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. (James 5:11)

Abraham also had to pass his test before he could be credited as the ‘father of faith’. His test? He had to lay down his only son, the one he loved (Gen 22:1, 2). He was willing to do that, just because of his simple trust and obedience. And the result? First, his son was saved. (Gen 22: 12) Then, his blessings confirmed. (Gen 22: 16, 17)

If you are going through trials and tests – which I am sure you are or you will – that’s just one more reason to rejoice! (James 1:2 – 4) If you are tested, you are going to be blessed. “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith -- of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire -- may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed." (I Peter 1:6,7)

Whatever You Do....

Have you ever felt that hours of hard work do not pay off? You are not looking for applause, but you just want acceptance. I’ve been through it – when I work on an article for weeks and it gets dumped, when I work so passionately on an idea and it gets scraped, when I spend sleepless nights to come up with a perfect design, but someone else’s design is preferred. I do it all ‘for God’, but so much of my time and effort is wasted and that disappoints me! I’m sure you have a similar story to tell.

But such situations only clarify our motives. I learnt that I need not get my article published in order to glorify God. Whether it is published or dumped, I can still glorify God by working wholeheartedly and sincerely.

We read in Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” “Whatever you do” implies whatever you do irrespective of whether it is accepted or rejected, appreciated or criticised, noticed or unnoticed, whether it is an ‘important’ task or a ‘trivial’ one.

When we work as working for the Lord and not for men, we only need to be concerned about the process, not about the result. You don’t have to feel bad when your idea is not accepted. For God, it does not matter whether your idea is a ‘success’ or a ‘failure’. He is more concerned about the heart. So, your time and effort is not really wasted. After all, you haven’t lost your heavenly reward yet!