Why is that faith needs to be tested? Since James opens his letter with the encouragement to embrace trials as a Christian “duty” I think it is important to find a satisfactory answer for my question. I know that there are a number of things in this life that we take by faith only to have that faith proven unjustified. I bought a washing machine. I paid a lot of money for it, much more than I had planned. It promised to wash my clothes while saving money and electricity. Some “professional testers” claimed to have put that model of clothes washer through their tests and it performed well. I demanded no other testing. But over time I tested the machine, and it FAILED. It did save water, but it didn’t get the clothes clean. Now I am frustrated, dejected, and about to take a monetary loss because I did not test the washer. God wants our faith to be tested to show us what he is doing in our lives. He doesn’t want us to take somebody else’s word about him; he wants to display his grace in our lives firsthand. When God’s grace carries us through the test we KNOW that God has prevailed and we have not FAILED. Then we will continue to pour our thanks on him, and love him all the more. At least that’s what I think.
It took me about 7 minutes to read this passage.
Stuart
No comments:
Post a Comment