Visited Every Morning, Tested Every Moment: Why God Tests You

Sermon outline

God visits you every morning and tests you every moment, not because He is angry but because He loves you and has a special destiny for you, so don't give up in the test: move from acts of faith to an attitude of trust.

1. He visits you every morning and tests you every moment

   Job asks what man is that God gives him so much attention, almost to the point of jealousy, so that you are the apple of His eye. Yet the same verse says He tests you every moment, not once every seven years. There are things in your life and his that nobody can explain, and just when you think you have it all together, another test comes.

   Illustration: Like flying into the clouds and the snow without understanding why: 'Lord, I've just got through seven, how come You've given me seven more?'

   “God visits you every morning but tests you every moment.”

   • Job 7:17-18
   • Psalm 8:4

2. God tests you because He loves you

   The Collins dictionary defines a test as ascertaining the worth of a person by subjecting them to examinations. God does not test you because He is angry or because you are unlovely; He tests you to establish your value. If you have a special destiny you will have special tests, because you are precious gold being refined, not wood, hay and stubble. Don't look for a seer to give you three words and a quick fix, and don't jump the test, because you will only have to retake the examination.

   Illustration: A jeweller subjects gold and silver to tests, but he won't waste his time testing iron.

   “God doesn't test you because he's angry, God tests you because he's got his favour on your life.”

   • 1 Corinthians 3:12

3. Rejected so you could be accepted

   God chose you, and He does not only choose squeaky clean vessels. Some grew up in Christian homes, but others had to grope their way through darkness among many gods before they found Yahweh, and he says he did not have his act together, yet God still loved him. Moses was placed in a basket on the river, technically rejected by his mother so that he could be saved, just as God turned from Jesus on the cross so that you could be saved. Moses was praised in Pharaoh's court while carrying that story inside him, and it was all part of God's story in him.

   Illustration: Moses' mother put him in a river that might have been rough, murky, full of crocodiles and snakes, taking the risk so that a nation could be saved.

   “I was rejected so I could be accepted.”

   • Jeremiah 1:5
   • Ephesians 1:4-5
   • Exodus 2:1-10
   • Matthew 27:46

4. Have you considered My servant?

   God was proud of Job and asked Satan whether he had considered him. God may be having that same conversation about you: after the lost job, the sickness, the wayward child and the backstabbing, they still sing, dance and bring their offerings. Stop thinking you must outperform God or manufacture a reason for Him to love you; there is nothing you can do to invoke His love.

   Illustration: He watched one of his grandchildren, six years old, at a karate grading and was proud of him, and he asks the church to picture God watching them in the same way and showing them off.

   “He loves you because he loves you.”

   • Job 1:8

5. A test has a starting point, so it must have an ending point

   Some are in the middle of a test that is about to end, so don't give up just when you are about to pass. The greater One lives inside you. Go back to the basics and simply believe God as you did when you first came to Christ, because the devils that grapple with your finances and the sickness that clings to you must leave when you believe. God is bigger than your test and your trial.

   Illustration: It can feel as if the devil has painted you into a corner, with no step left or right.

   “A test always has a starting point, so it must have an ending point.”

   • 1 John 4:4

6. Respond to testing with joy and endurance

   James says to count it all joy, because the trying of your faith works patience, and to let patience have its perfect work. Endurance is the ability to go through a difficult situation without giving way, whatever people are saying. Your challenges cannot be compared with anyone else's, because God is taking you to a large place you are not qualified for, and the God who brings you there will keep you there and give you the right word in the right season.

   Illustration: Like Paul, who came in fear and trembling, he climbs the stairs to preach saying, 'God, I have prepared, but what would You have me do now?', and God says that is the way He likes it.

   “Mediocre people have mediocre tests and great people have great tests.”

   • James 1:2-4
   • James 5:11
   • 1 Corinthians 2:3

7. Faith is an act, trust is an attitude

   It takes faith to be saved, to believe for a miracle, a job, a business, a wayward child or a marriage, but God tests us again and again so that we learn to trust Him. Moses killed the Egyptian thinking it was faith, then spent 40 years in the wilderness, and only at 80 was he ready in God's hands. Trust prays when you don't feel like it, comes to church because you need God too much to stay away, and gives because you love Him. Job said that though God slay him, yet would he praise Him.

   Illustration: People around us don't understand why we clap, dress up and sing in church, but they haven't walked the journey we have walked or been tested as we have.

   “Faith is an act that brings you into the kingdom of God, but trust is an attitude.”

   • Exodus 2:11-15
   • Numbers 20:10-12
   • Job 13:15
   • Job 2:7-9
   • Romans 12:3
   • Romans 10:17

8. If God did it for us, He'll do it for you

   He tells the church that the life they see now did not come easily: he shares hard seasons from his own family's story when, with no knowledge or know-how, all they had was God. In all their years of serving the Lord, some answers came quickly and some took their time, but every one came. So don't judge anyone by what you see now; God is faithful and will bring you through every test.

   “There is not a prayer that we have prayed God has not answered.”