Feeling Tested?

If you are anything like me you hated it any time you had to take a test in school. All the studying, cramming and preparing just threw you out of sync and it really messed with your mind...

Was that true?
Did this happen before that one?
How do I get the common denominator?
Who did what?

On and on and on and the worse part of the whole thing was feeling like you were going to fail!

I've thought of tests and testing many times since becoming a Christian as well.

Why am I going through this?
What is happening to me?
How am I supposed to handle this one?
What am I supposed to do?

All of these questions seem to be on a test that feels like sometimes God is giving me. And guess what... I wonder how I'll do every time I take a test like this.

Let's face it, most of us in school took our tests and took them with some confidence but it seems like when these tests come from God our confidence goes right out the window.

Why is that?

Are we so afraid that if we fail one test that all is lost and our pass into heaven will be revoked?

If you feel like this sometimes let me invite you to look at things from a new perspective, one that has been helping me along the way.

When I am faced with what I feel is a test I tend to look at it as a gauge. What I mean by that is that when a test comes along I can use that to gauge where I am in my Christian walk.

Am I maturing?
Am I responding differently than I might have responded before?
Am I seeing the whole picture?
And what is God using this to do in my life?

Have all become some of the tools I use to "gauge" myself when these tests come along.

You see as maturing Christians we are all a work in progress. We are not transformed overnight. And for us to become the mature Christians that God intends for us to be we are given a series of "gauges" so that we can see where we are measuring up at.

And guess what... God doesn't want us to fail!

He wants us to learn and grow and become more and more like His son Jesus.

How are we going to know we are maturing if we don't use the gauge to measure our growth?