Feb 17 - DAY 5 - Seeing Life from God's View

Day 5

Seeing Life from God’s View

God withdrew from Hezekiah

in order to test him and

to see what was really

in his heart.

2 Chronicles 32:31 NLT

Rick Warren says, life is a test.

There was a time in my life when I would have limited God, when I would have said, “God is too nice to test us.”

•      One, that’s me limiting God.
•      Two, that doesn’t gibe with scripture.
•      Three, that doesn’t gibe with our daily experience of life.

As Rick Warren says, life is a test. Every hour. Every day.

•      How I use my time – moment-to-moment – is a test.
•      How I respond to the inevitable – to change and grief and loss – is a test.
•      Will turn to him and live … or will I strive for selfish-gain? That’s the ultimate test. We have but one life to make this eternal decision.

Testing is not my favorite life metaphor. (I’ll share my personal life metaphor with you tomorrow.) But I can’t deny that each moment tests me.

But here’s the good news amidst all of our tests. God does not have a smite button! In fact, he does not have to engineer trails – life in a broken world engineers quite enough already, thank you.

Life itself challenges us, and perspective returns when we realize that every life-test is an opportunity for personal  growth. Will I cling to God or turn to my own way? Will I trust and love or will I grow hard and bitter?

When I was a kid in school, I hated tests. But if I’m honest, the tests forced me to study They pushed me to learn. The tests help me grow and allowed me to become what I am today.

In retrospect, I’m thankful for the tests. Indeed, one of the secrets of life is to be thankful for life’s tests – sometimes even as they’re occurring. They help us to grow – grow in character, grow in perspective, and best of all, grow in faith.

In Christ’s Love,

a student

(test me if you have to!)