DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

How do car manufacturers make sure their vehicles are safe for people to drive? They put them on a proving ground where they’re driven hundreds of miles over rough roads, through water and heat—screeching, turning, twisting, hitting the brakes, accelerating to top speeds. They want to see if that car will stand the test.

It’s the same with our spiritual lives. God is strange: He gives the test first and the lesson afterwards. Read throughout Scripture and you’ll find this to be true. Joseph was tested. David was tested. Moses was tested. Peter was tested.

When God gets ready to prove you, He is not going to test you in the good times because that is not a test! Anybody can serve God in the sunshine. He’s not going to test you in the middle of a revival meeting. But can you sing in the shadows? The test is not how you behave when there’s victory all around. The test is how you behave when you’re facing a wilderness.

He doesn’t test you to know what’s in your heart. He already knows that. He wants you to know what’s in your heart so you can realize your own weakness. He wants you to depend not on better circumstances, but on Him. He wants you to see the weakness of your human nature so you know you need to trust more fully in Him.

ACTION POINT:

How do you behave when God brings you to the wilderness? He wants you to know what is in your heart. Can you walk by FAITH— “Forsaking All, I Take Him”? Are you fully TRUSTING Him? Are you devoted to Him?