Testing Ground...

"You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not."--Deuteronomy 8:2.  Moses reminding the people of one of the reasons the Israelites remained in the wilderness forty years.  We can gather from this verse that the wilderness was a testing ground.

Testing ground.  Yesterday morning I finished the last of four midterms at the preaching school I attend, the Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver.  Of course like in any given school, the purpose of tests such as midterms are to demonstrate how well you studied, how well you learned the material and of course to see how well you paid attention to the instructor.  This is always a scary time for myself and my fellow students because it puts our knowledge "to the test."  Midterms are a testing ground.

Testing ground.  So what does this have to do with Deuteronomy 8:2?  Well as the verse says, the forty years were a period of testing to see if some of the people had truly paid attention to what God had told them during this time.  this verse also tells us that it was during this time that this testing would reveal what was in their hearts.

So what does this all mean to us?  Fact is, for those of us that are in Christ, we are all on a testing ground.  The Israelites had Egypt behind them and the Promised Land in front of them.  Are we any different?  We too have Egypt behind us meaning that we have been released from our slavery to sin.  We have the Promised Land, heaven, in front of us and here we are somewhere in between in a testing ground.

As we walk through the wilderness or the testing ground of this world we live in, we are constantly put in positions where we must make a choice between obeying God's will or obeying our own will. It is when doing God's will becomes difficult that what is in our heart is revealed.  This is not a foreign concept to us.  How often do we see Christians toss God's will out the window when life gets tough?  The Parable of the Sower in Luke 8:4-15 is a good description of how people react to God's Word (the seed) in any given situation.

Testing ground.  So my encouragement to you is this.  The testing ground we are in reveals what in our heart.  Do not be discouraged and automatically think you have a bad heart if you mess up along the way.  We know from the Scriptures that some hearts can be changed.  I can personally attest to that in my own life.  While I am still very much a work in progress, I can see the progress I have made and the changes God has made in my heart.  So as we walk through this testing ground, remember the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 13:5-6--"Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you--unless indeed you fail the test? But I trust that you will realize that we ourselves do not fail the test."  Study God's Word daily to help you prepare for the tests that will come.

DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! PRAY ABOUT IT! LOVE Y'ALL! GOD BLESS!