The Testing and Refining

Jeremiah 17: 10
I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind,
Even to give every man according to his ways,
According to the fruit of his doings.

As we accept Christ, as we are cleansed by HIS blood and are filled with HIS HOLY Spirit, we become the spiritual descendants of Abraham. All the promises that apply to Abraham and his descendants apply to us. God loves to bless HIS children and that's why He gives wonderful promises and delights to fulfill them. God loves to bless us in all aspects of our lives – physical health and wholeness, material richness (which simply means that we lack nothing), spiritual richness and etc.

But when we look at our lives, often we find it so dull and lacking. We slowly begin to question God "Why has not the blessings of the LORD come upon me? Why do I have tight finances? Why do I have to suffer such a physical pain for so long? Why do I have a poor spiritual life? Why is there no peace in my life?" I believe that God has certain divine principles which HE follows since HE is a perfect and a righteous God. If HE blessed everyone just like magic, would anyone stand in the LORD for long? I certainly doubt it. Also, our clever minds would in no time start boasting of the riches God gives - thinking they were the fruits of self-efforts or our own intelligence. The human mind either gets so excited by the blessings and forgets the Giver (lust Which slowly turns to idol worship replacing God) or is easily bored and has no interest in what he has received from God and wants even more (discontentment). God knows the wickedness of the human heart and that is why he tests the heart again and again, to purify it, to cleanse it of all the worldly lusts and then makes HIS Word come true in our lives. This is for our own good, because, otherwise, we would easily slip away from God - following the idols of our hearts - destroying our own soul! Joseph is the best example in the Bible in whose life, we see the dealing of GOD, and the toughest tests that he had to go through till he saw the promises come into pass. Joseph was sold as a slave by his own brothers to quench their jealousy, was imprisoned by Potiphar for a mistake he never committed, was forgotten by the chief butler for whom Joseph did a very great favor of interpreting his dreams!

Am sure, Joseph would've had so many "Why's" in his life and would've almost begun doubting the promises of God. But, nonetheless, he patiently accepted what God allowed in his life and kept on being faithful with everything entrusted to him and doing his best wherever he was - be it in Potiphar's house where he was a servant or in the prison where he was a prisoner (Genesis chapter 39 gives an account of his faithfulness). Although Joseph hadn't seen his best days then, the last verse in the chapter says "because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper." This is an interesting point to note and we might've very well experienced this in our life. Although we may feel that we hadn't seen anything yet, of HIS good promises come into pass, HE Surely gives us the grace to pull on with what we have, the strength to carry our daily burdens and helps us overcome the hurdles of life - because HE is with us!

  

"Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him (Joseph).” Likewise, God has a specific time until he breaks our "Self" completely, breaks our trust in everything (be it recommendation of influential people, human strength, intellectual smartness, eloquence, anything which we consider, can make us rich) other than God and finally makes HIS Words come into pass - and the best part is we would've, by then, grown stronger in the LORD, would’ve lost trust in self and others, wouldn't face discontentment or fall prey to lust, when we receive the LORD's abundance in our lives! And we would not boast of “Self-achievement” since we will clearly know that it is the LORD’s doing.

         The other reason why God wants to delay our blessings is: "An inheritance gained hastily at the beginning Will not be blessed at the end." (Proverbs 20:21) All GOD'S people had to go through their period of testing (Abraham had to be childless for 100 years, Isaac had to put up with constantly fighting neighbors, Jacob had to run away from his brother and had to be cheated by his uncle, Joseph had to undergo punishments for the wrongs he never did, eloquent and smart Prince Moses had to become a shepherd who lacked eloquence, David had to be a shepherd and had to fight wild animals and so on..) until HIS Word comes into pass (may be after months, years or decades) in their lives! All these circumstances were unfair enough to think that God’s promises might never be fulfilled in their lives. But, that was not the end of the story! We know how each hero in the bible finally received the fullness of God’s blessing – in the end – when all their self-reliance and self-confidence was gone to pave way for a COMPLETE TRUST IN GOD ALONE!

      The point is: We need to allow the working of God when we face the "Why's" of our own lives and be faithful in everything God has entrusted us with (our time, job, relationships), and in GOD'S own perfect time - no matter how impossible our current situation looks like - the days of abundance, the days of perfection and the days of divine blessings will come!! And by then, we would have become the person God wants us to be – as He shapes us through the constant testing!! Amen.