More Testing

In South Africa, we’ve had an interesting week! One of our female athletes at the World Games was suspected of being, in actual fact, a man! Oh my, how we had a laugh with the commentaries this way and that way. We’re also experiencing multiple union organised strike actions and we are yet again reminded that the global financial recession is tough on everyone. One of my close friends and brothers in Christ is a business owner whose employers will be on such a strike this weekend, their busiest weekend of the month! To top it off, his ‘home away from home’ [a lovely property on a Game Farm] was burgled and they lost everything except the heavier furniture. These are truly trying times; we are challenged more than ever before to keep our focus on Christ.

In the previous post, we discussed such challenges or tests and I’d like to repeat one of the verses we used in the first chapter of James:

“(2) Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations. (3) Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience. (4) But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.”

In the previous post we came to the conclusion that these tests or trials are there to help us clearly see our true identity in Christ; that we live and move according to His revelation to us and in us. James mentions that these tests are specifically ‘designed’ to bring about steadfastness in our faith – we become more and more convinced of and understand it more and more clearly what Christ had finished for us in his death, burial and resurrection.

What does Paul have to say on the matter? 2Corinthians 13:5 "Put yourselves to the test and judge yourselves, to find out whether you are living in faith. Surely you know that Christ Jesus is in you? - unless you have completely failed."

Paul reminds us to ask ourselves the question: “What am I to see in this test, Lord?” The moment I ask this question, I am reminded of the answer: “You”. In any and all tests I am reminded of ‘Christ in me’; I am reminded of my own human frailty and tendency for unbelief, I am reminded of the fact that I was designed that way so that Christ could be my strength and by faith. When I am steadfastly focused on Christ (the perfect and wise one) I cannot be distracted by the things of this world. Colossians 1:27 confirms my identity in Christ with a fitting picture: we are hewn from the Rock, which is Christ.

You see, when we fail to see ourselves as included in Christ, we cannot hope to live a life of fullness and peace, we cannot serve others and we cannot ‘please’ God. We, in our human essence, are not enough… we cannot obtain these things by our mere human effort. It is only Christ within us who brings forth these things… NATURALLY!! Because it comes naturally for Him. Christ in you is everything you need to be what God created you to be and to live a full and happy life that is pleasing to Him.

In The Message we read the following: Romans 8:29 “God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him.”

So the test is something that happens, to bring out something specifically: a greater revelation or a greater realization of who I am in Him and Who He is in me! We must understand that God is very interested in us, in actual fact, He longs for us to know Him – and by know we are saying ‘to understand my inclusion in Christ’. In fact, when Jesus speaks to His followers about the Sower in Matthew 13, He says something very significant: Matthew 13:21 “Yet it has no real root in him, but is temporary (inconstant, lasts but a little while); and when affliction or trouble or persecution comes on account of the Word, at once he is caused to stumble [he is repelled and begins to distrust and desert Him Whom he ought to trust and obey] and he falls away.”

The test comes on account of the Word to create a steadfastness in faith, which in turn produces the fully developed, lacking in nothing and being perfect, part. So, when the test comes we must ask: “Lord, what am I to see in this?” But this is not in the same way that Job’s friends did. Our question should look more like Paul’s: “Do you not know that Christ is in you?”. Our question is to remind us of our true identity: Christ is more than enough in me, in this situation.

God doesn’t want you to live in a mediocre conviction of how He feels about you and what He has done for and in you, but to see and understand the full impact His love for you!

Think on this: He loves you more than you could possibly imagine!