Imagine you are in a store, and someone deliberately hits you with the shopping cart, then proceeds to call you all sorts of bad names straight to your face… what would you do in this situation? You would probably ask the person to please apologize and, be polite and to please be careful next time, or you would probably retaliate or even do worse. A situation like this can present itself either as a trap or an opportunity. A trap in the sense that if you decide to retaliate or even do worse than what the person did to you, the situation could get worse and put you in a position you would not like to be. This situation could also be an opportunity for you to be kind despite all the bad words and rudeness shown to you. Ultimately you could be a soul winner for just deciding not to fight back – Matthew 5:44
God often places us in situations that will test us so that He can prepare us for the journey ahead as His children. For a car manufacturer to put its cars up to be sold, a series of tests need to be run. Like for instance, the durability of the car, the type of parts it will need to perform at its optimum level and its functionalities, if any of these tests fail the car will be called back to the manufacturer to be fixed and then retested.
In Genesis 22:1-19, God tested Abraham to prove his faith, obedience, and trust in His promises. The test involved asking Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, whom God had promised would be the source of a great nation. As Abraham was about to slay his son, the angel of the Lord stopped him and instead of killing his son God provided a ram – Genesis 22:10-18.
In the book of Job, we also see how God can allow Satan to test us. God allowed Satan to test Job. God had so much confidence in Job, Job 1:8, “And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?” When you are in right standing with God, He does not exempt you from challenges, the purpose of those challenges are to strengthen you in the Lord. It was God’s will for Job to go through the struggles he went through, Job lost everything, but he never lost his faith in God.
In Genesis 3, God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Serpent, otherwise called Satan, convinced Eve that she would not die when she eats from the Tree of Knowledge – Genesis 3:1-4 and unfortunately, Eve did not know this was a trap, a trap that would change everything for humanity. As we all know, Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and disobeyed God’s instructions, and this brought untold negative consequences to them and invariably to humanity – Genesis 3:14-24
King Saul was a man who failed many tests, one of the tests he failed was the test of patience and obedience, 1 Samuel 13:8-14, Saul was instructed to wait for the prophet Samuel to offer a sacrifice before going to battle against the Philistines. Saul grew impatient when Samuel was delayed, so he took matters into his own hands and offered the burnt sacrifice himself, 1 Samuel 13:8-10, something only priests and prophets were allowed to do. As a result of this, Samuel told Saul that because of his disobedience, his kingdom would not last, and that God would find a man “after His own heart” (David) to replace him.
To break forth and enjoy the goodness of the Lord, we must commit to following God’s instructions and doing all that is necessary, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to walk in His will, be steadfast, reflect His light to those around us, and be useful and profitable to His kingdom work. God bless!