Around We Go
Riiing! The buzzer sounds, signaling the end of the test. I take one final glance at my material, take a deep breath and think back on what I was worried about before. It looked so hard from far away, even while I was working on it, but now that it was completed I felt a sense of relief and accomplishment. I did it. I was victorious and I overcame my final! I could hardly even remember what I was worrying about so much before. Everyone can relate to the stress and aggravation of testing days. We worry about so much, constantly thinking we will fail, but when it is done we feel a sense of accomplishment because we didn’t allow that test to overcome us.
Just as everyone has had a “testing day” experience, everyone comes to a place in our relationship with God where He will test areas of our life. When that happens we may have those same feelings of aggravation. Maybe we’re wondering what we did wrong in life or feel like we can’t handle it. God doesn’t want us to feel that way. In fact, He told us that we would have to go through trials and testing — but He also promised that He would bring us through them!
God uses the help of our brothers and sisters in Christ who have already gone through something similar to what God is doing in your life to uplift and encourage you. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says that “No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it.” God will never let us down! He is always there by our side, a hand to hold onto! He is the greatest teacher — mentally, spiritually, and emotionally, He was preparing you all along for your “life test” so you’d be ready to conquer it!
Here’s another way to look at it: a song I listened to recently says “He never promised that the cross would not get heavy, or the hill would not be hard to climb, he never offered our victories without fighting, but he said help would always come in time.” When we go through trials, sometimes we are quick to blame Him for not being with us, or allowing us to be tested. Life feels like a pop quiz you weren’t ready for. But on the contrary, you wouldn’t be tested if the Teacher had not been teaching you the material before hand.
We need to be quick to remember what has been taught to us and apply it to our situation. More importantly, when trials come we need to be strong in God and keep our roots deep in Him and in Scripture. Meditate on His word to become like a tree planted by the rivers of water. If we do not sway, we will be able to conquer and be victorious throughout every test. After all, He didn’t promise that living would be easy or that we wouldn’t face opposition. He did make a promise that’s more powerful than either of those ideas: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Great intro. I think everyone can relate to getting through an academic test, leaving hope that we can get through spiritual tests.
Thanks for being positive and writing from a perspective of faith.