PUTTING GOD TO THE TEST?
by Ivan Maddox
One of the things that God expects of His people is that they put their trust in Him. This is not optional. This is a basic requirement for having and maintaining a real and vital relationship with God.
Hebrews 11:6.
11:6 But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Two key things are required by God of those who who come to Him for help. The first is that the person believe that God exists. A person who is not convinced, from the evidence that God has bountifully supplied to us in the vastness of creation around us, that God exists, should not expect to be able to call on God for help and receive it. God may still choose to help this person because of His own mercy and grace, but the fact remains that the person who does not believe that there is a God has no legitimate basis for asking God for help. The second is that the person believe that if he or she seeks God diligently, God will reward them. This is the basic minimum requirement in terms of trust in God that is required of someone seeking something from God. It is this trust that keeps prayer from being a fruitless ritual, and makes it instead a means of seeking God's active involvement in our lives.
God desires more than a minimum level of trust from His people. He is faithful, He is worthy of our trust and confidence, and He expects wholehearted trust from us.
Proverbs 3:5-6.
3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
3:6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
There are two basic ways we can live our lives. We can trust in the Lord with our whole hearts, or we can lean to our own understanding. The way we have been taught to live since childhood is by leaning to our own, or to someone else's, understanding. It takes time and effort for us to get to the place that we put our trust in the Lord, rather than in ourselves.
Trust is not something you just give away. Trust has to be earned. Our trust in the Lord is based on what we've seen Him do in our lives over time. We trust Him because we have seen Him prove Himself trustworthy.
This passage warns us that trusting God will sometimes require that we do things that are not consistent with our own understanding. What we usually want to do, though, is have the best of both worlds: we want to trust God, while maintaining the option of leaning to our own understanding as we see fit. But God does not want us just to trust Him only as far as we think is prudent. All of us start our relationship with God with this partial kind of trust; but God does not want us to stop there. He wants us to grow in our confidence in Him until we reach the place that we trust Him with our whole heart -- even when what He says is in conflict with our own foolish wisdom.
How do we grow in our trust of God? By watching how God shows Himself faithful to His word in our lives. This means that we must come to know God's word, and that we must remember the good things God has done for us. Failure to do either one of these will hinder us from putting our trust in God.
One of the problems we run into when dealing with God is that He doesn't think the way we think.
Isaiah 55:8-11.
55:8 For my thoughts [are] not your thoughts, neither [are] your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
55:9 For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
55:10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
55:11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper [in the thing] whereto I sent it.
God doesn't think the way we think, and God doesn't do things the way we do. This has serious implications for us.
It means, first and foremost, that we can't understand God intuitively. Most people believe that they can get a pretty good idea of what God wants and what God is like by listening to their own hearts. This is an excellent recipe for a failed relationship with God, for it practically guarantees that we will misunderstand God.
Even good people who are trying to do good cannot know God intuitively. How much more is this true of those who are not even trying to please God by their way of life! In Psalm 50 God addresses some people who are walking contrary to His will, but still think they have Him figured out.
Psalm 50:16-21 (NIV).
16 But to the wicked, God says:
"What right have you to recite my laws
or take my covenant on your lips?
17 You hate my instruction
and cast my words behind you.
18 When you see a thief, you join with him;
you throw in your lot with adulterers.
19 You use your mouth for evil
and harness your tongue to deceit.
20 You speak continually against your brother
and slander your own mother's son.
21 These things you have done and I kept silent;
you thought I was altogether like you.
But I will rebuke you
and accuse you to your face.
These people were heartily engaged in doing evil; yet they took note of the fact that God seemed to be silent about what they were doing, and was taking no action to stop them. They concluded from this that God was a lot like themselves in His thinking and in His nature. They projected their own corrupt minds onto God. God made it clear here that they were seriously mistaken about Him, as He would shortly make clear.
It's easy for us to see that what these people were doing was wrong; but to a lesser extent we tend to do the same thing. To the extent that we do not go to the trouble of trying to learn who God says He is in His word, to that extent we project onto God our own values, beliefs, frailties, inconsistencies, and limitations. We end up with a God who looks very little like the God of the Bible, but who makes a lot of sense to us. We end up with a God who is very much the product of our own imagination.
Not only are God's thoughts and methods different from ours; God's motives and purposes are different from ours as well. Without the light given us by God's word, we are just as blind about why God does what He does as we are about what He thinks and how He works. We cannot know God's motives and purposes intuitively.
Years ago I was taught that the subject of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is Jesus Christ -- and I believed that. I'm not so sure now that this is strictly true. The Bible goes to a lot of trouble to make known Christ to us; but knowing Christ is not the end in itself. The Bible points us to Christ because Christ is our means of knowing God. It is Christ who made known to us the Father by his life and by his words -- so much so that he could say, "He who has seen me has seen the Father." The words that Jesus spoke were his Father's words. The works that Jesus did were his Father's works. Jesus is "the Way" to the Father; but we are not to end our journey on the road, short of our destination. Jesus is "the Door" by whom alone we can enter into the Father's presence; but we are not to end our journey on the outside of the door, outside the presence of the Father. Jesus is our means of coming to God. It is God Himself who is the subject of the Bible from beginning to end. The Bible is the story of the mighty acts of God.
We face a similar problem when looking at life. We tend to think that we ourselves are the star of the story -- that our lives are, first and foremost, about us. This is, I believe, a warped view. The central figure in the story of Life, now and always, is God. We are His supporting cast; but the star of the story, now and always, is God.
Putting ourselves on center stage in the drama of life warps our expectations of God. We tend to believe that whatever we happen to want at the moment is what God is somehow bound and responsible to give us. We tend to believe that it is up to us to set the goals and the course for our lives, and that it is God's responsibility to support us in whatever we choose to do. In reality, it is our responsibility, as God's creations and God's property, to bring our goals and dreams in line with what God is doing, to the extent that He has made this known to us by means of His word.
One problem we face when dealing with God is that we spent our whole lives, before we received Christ as our Lord, learning how to think and how to do things in a way contrary to the way God thinks and works. This means that unless there is a radical change in the way we think and the way we do things, the thoughts and ways of God will remain alien to us.
Fortunately, God Himself has provided the means by which we can deal with this problem. He has made available to us "the mind of Christ," by means of His word and His spirit.
1 Corinthians 2:16
2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
We cannot intuitively know God's mind, because His thoughts and His ways are so much higher than our own. However, we can receive a "mind transplant" from God; our minds can be reshaped so that they bear the likeness of the mind of Christ. This happens as we "let the word of Christ dwell in you richly" (Colossians 3:6), as we become "doers of the word, and not hearers only" (James 1:22), and as we "walk in love" (Ephesians 5:2). This process is known as "the renewing of the mind."
Romans 12:2
12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
As our minds are transformed to become more and more like the mind of Christ, our thinking becomes more and more in line with God's thinking. His thoughts and His ways make more and more sense to us. As this happens, it becomes easier and easier for us to trust Him.
II. The Temptation to Test God
One of the ways which our "own understanding" has found for dealing with the problem of determining who we can trust is by putting people and things to the test. Those who pass the tests we set for them, we trust. Those who fail our tests, we don't. Sooner or later, it occurs to most of us that this tried and true method of dealing with the trust problem may work in our relationship with God as well. If God passes the tests we give Him, we know we can trust Him. If not, we can set "realistic" limits on how far we can trust Him.
A moment's reflection reveals that there are some serious problems with this idea. First, we have no way of making God take a test of our own devising. We must, instead, test Him based on how He handles the situations that we see come up in life. Second, we don't have all the information necessary to come up with a sound judgment. Our knowledge is limited. God's is not. Third, testing God puts us in the position of judging God. And finally, this whole idea of testing God presupposes that we have a true alternative to testing God: it presumes that we can take care of ourselves.
A man named Job found himself in this position of judging God's job performance. He did not set out to do this. However, life dealt him such a cruel series of blows that he found himself wondering whether the Ceator of the heavens and earth was sleeping on the job! He began to complain about his poor treatment at the hands of the Almighty. To most of us his complaints, in light of all that had happened to him, make sense.
But then God showed up. He did not console Job on his losses, as we might expect. He did not offer to promptly fix things for Job. Instead, He addressed Job's complaints. First, He reminded Job who it was he was talking to. He laid out for Job His credentials.
Job quickly realized he was out of his depth here. He meekly repented to God, confessing that he was mistaken in what he had said, and offering to keep his mouth shut about things he obviously didn't understand.
But God wasn't through yet. He began to question Job.
Job 40:7-8.
40:7 Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
40:8 Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?
God asked Job: Are you setting yourself up as My court of appeals? Are you going to decide which of My decisions are right, and which are wrong? When God puts it this way, it becomes clear that this whole concept of "testing God" is a Bad Idea.
But God was not through with Job yet. God had devised His own test for Job.
Job 40:9-14.
40:9 Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?
40:10 Deck thyself now [with] majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty.
40:11 Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath: and behold every one [that is] proud, and abase him.
40:12 Look on every one [that is] proud, [and] bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place.
40:13 Hide them in the dust together; [and] bind their faces in secret.
40:14 Then will I also confess unto thee that thine own right hand can save thee.
God's test was simple: humble every proud person, and punish every wicked person! If you can do that, God said, I will admit to you that you can take care of yourself!
That's the problem. We don't have the power or the wisdom to take care of things ourself. We need God. We have no choice but to trust Him -- not tentatively or cautiously, but with our whole hearts. Our "Plan B," trusting in others or trusting in ourself, stinks!
However, God has not left us with no way to judge His faithfulness. He has given us a legitimate method, approved by Himself, for judging not Him, but His will for our lives. That method is found in Romans 12.
Romans 12:2
12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
God wants us to put His will to the test in our lives, so that we can prove to our own satisfaction that God's will is "good, and acceptable, and perfect." The method He has ordained for our doing this is "by the renewing of [our] minds." We are not to allow ourselves to be conformed to the ways and the thinking of this age in which we live. We are, instead, to transform our lives by transforming our minds. As we allow the word of Christ to dwell richly in our minds and transform the way we think, so that our thinking becomes more in line with God's thinking, and as we commit ourselved to carrying out in our lives what we hear in God's word, we will find that we ourselves are being transformed. Our personalities will remain the same; these were given to us by God, and give us our distinct individuality. But our character will change, becoming more and more like the character of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is himself the image of God. We will show more and more evidence of the fruit of the spirit -- those characteristics of God that were evident in Christ, and that God is building in our own lives as we walk in obedience to His word and His spirit -- not only in our thinking, but in our manner of living as well.
As our minds and our character are transformed by God's word, we will find that God's will is being worked out in our lives. Right here is one of the most beautiful secrets of the Christian life. Our trust in God is not built primarily by asking God for things, believing He will give them to us, and receiving them. It is built by allowing ourselves to be transformed by God into the persons He wants us to be. This requires letting His word find a permanent residence in our minds and in our hearts. It requires developing a habit not only of hearing God's word, but of obeying it. As we do these things, we ourselves are changed, and we see more and more vividly God's will being worked in our lives and through our lives.
John 15:4-5, 7.
15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
15:5 I am the vine, ye [are] the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
When we walk in habitual obedience to Christ, when we rely on his strength and ability instead of our own, and when we allow his word to set up residence in our minds and hearts, we will find ourselves in intimate contact with Christ and with God. We will find also that we can ask what we will, and God will do it for us.
1 John 5:14-15.
5:14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
5:15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
Our prayers will be in line with God's will because our minds and our actions have been brought into agreement with God's word.
III. "Forget Not All His Benefits"
One of the problems we face in trying to grow in our trust in God is that our memories are not what they should be. We have a tendency to forget all the good things God has already done for us -- and is still doing for us -- and to zero right in on what it is that we feel God is NOT doing for us right now.
In this we are much like children. A child can say to his parent with a sincere heart, "You don't love me," or "You never give me anything," forgetting that the roof that shelters him, the food he eats, the clothes he wears, the toys he plays with -- everything it takes to sustain his life and to provide him with the little pleasures that make his life enjoyable -- are supplied, not by himself, but by his parents. In his desire for what he wants, he forgets what he already has.
God encourages his people not to forget all the good things He has done for them.
Psalm 103:2-5.
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good [things; so that] thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.
How do we keep from forgetting what God has done for us? By "bless[ing] the Lord," that is, by getting into the habit of thanking Him for what He has done. To the degree that we are thankful to God for what He does for us, we will not be forgetful. This thankfulness benefits us in another way: it is easier for us to trust God in the present for what we need if we remember and are thankful for what He has done for us in the past. Remembering God's faithfulness in the past helps us to trust in God's faithfulness in the present.
God encouraged His people
Psalm 78:1-8.
78:1 Give ear, O my people, [to] my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
78:2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:
78:3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
78:4 We will not hide [them] from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.
78:5 For
he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in
78:6 That the generation to come might know [them, even] the children [which] should be born; [who] should arise and declare [them] to their children:
78:7 That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:
78:8 And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation [that] set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.
God wanted the Israelites to teach their children what He had done for them in the past for four reasons:
1. So that their children might put their hope in God.
2. So
that their children would not forget what He had done for
3. So that their children would be obedient to His word.
4. So that their children would not repeat the sins of their fathers.
But, all too often,
Psalm 106:6-8.
106:6 We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.
106:7 Our
fathers understood not thy wonders in
106:8 Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known.
But in spite of their failures, God did mighty works on
behalf of
Psalm 78:9-11.
78:9 The children of Ephraim, [being] armed, [and] carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
78:10 They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;
78:11 And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.
Psalm 78:12-16.
78:12 Marvellous things did he in the sight of their
fathers, in the
78:13 He divided the sea, and caused them to pass through; and he made the waters to stand as an heap.
78:14 In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
78:15 He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave [them] drink as [out of] the great depths.
78:16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
We in the church are in a similar situation. Like the
But even many of the
Instead, they devised a test for God to pass in order for Him to earn their trust.
Psalm 78:17-20.
78:17 And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.
78:18 And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust.
78:19 Yea, they spake against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
78:20 Behold, he smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?
In effect, they asked God, “What have you done for me lately?”
What was God’s reaction to the test His people came up with for Him? He was furious!
Psalm 78:21-25.
78:21 Therefore the LORD heard
[this], and was wroth: so a fire was kindled against Jacob,
and anger also came up against
78:22 Because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation:
78:23 Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,
78:24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.
78:25 Man did eat angels' food: he sent them meat to the full.
Why was God angry with them? First, because their testing of God had as its roots their lack of tust in God. In spite of all He had done for them, they refused to trust and believe Him. Second, they weren’t complaining about an unmet need. Instead, they were complaining because they weren’t happy with what He had provided to meet their needs. They had what they needed, but what they had wasn’t what they wanted. They were upset because what they were receiving from God to meet their needs wasn’t, in their estimation, good enough.
How did God display His anger toward these ungrateful people? The first thing He did should give us serious pause: He answered their prayer!
Psalm 78:26-29.
78:26 He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven: and by his power he brought in the south wind.
78:27 He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:
78:28 And he let [it] fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.
78:29 So they did eat, and were well filled: for he gave them their own desire;
This should serve as a warning to us: Getting what you asked God for doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re on good terms with God.
God gave them what they wanted in order to establish the fact that He could do what they were questioning that He could do. Then, once they had received what they had asked for, He judged them for asking for it.
Psalm 78:30-31.
78:30 They were not estranged from their lust. But while their meat [was] yet in their mouths,
78:31 The
wrath of God came upon them, and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the
chosen [men] of
All this started with an unthankful attitude, which had its start in forgetting the good things God had already done for them.
Psalm 78:32-34.
78:32 For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works.
78:33 Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.
78:34 When he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and enquired early after God.
The way to avoid this problem is to be thankful for what God has already done for you. But even in our thankfulness it is possible to err.
Psalm 78:35-39.
78:35 And they remembered that God [was] their rock, and the high God their redeemer.
78:36 Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.
78:37 For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.
78:38 But he, [being] full of compassion, forgave [their] iniquity, and destroyed [them] not: yea, many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.
78:39 For he remembered that they [were but] flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again.
Our thankfulness must come from the heart, not merely from our lips. It is all too easy to forget that God doesn’t merely listen to our lips; He knows our hearts. Telling God what we think He wants to hear does not get us anywhere with God.
Remembering what God did for and through Jesus Christ is important, but that’s just the foundation for our trust in God. We need to keep our eyes open so that we are aware of the many things God does to supply our needs, and the many ways God answers our prayers. As we remember these things, and remain genuinely thankful to God for them, we build in our own heart a catalog of the works of God, both great and small, in our own lives. It is this that forms the basis of our trust in God when things seem dark and times seem hard. We will find that we can trust God then because He has already proved Himself faithful again and again in our own lives.