Special Tests for Special Purposes – Part 16

If I were to ask each one of you individually, what would you consider the hardest test that Christians face? And I would probably receive a variety of different answers. I believe that the hardest test we are likely to face and the one we are least likely to pass – is success. Solomon warns us: Ecclesiastes 7:8 NKJV “The end of a thing is better than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.”

To put it in another way, it is not how you start a race that makes you a winner, but how you finish it. A veteran Chinese pastor, who spent more than 20 years in prison for his faith and recently went to be with the Lord, made this personal comment: “I have seen many people have good beginnings, but few have good endings.”

As examples of men who have achieved success, we will consider some of the kings of Israel. The first king, Saul was a strong, outstanding young man, who early in his career gained various military victories. But when sent by God on a mission against the Amalekites, he allowed fear of the people to keep him from full obedience to God’s command. As a result, the prophet Samuel came to him with a message that God had rejected him as king. Saul’s root problem was summed up in Samuel’s message: 1 Samuel 15:17 NKJV “When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel?”