Today's Worship Wednesday is about why God tests our faith, and other ways that he tests us.
First off, I'd like to say that God doesn't test our faith so that He knows how strong our faith is. HE ALREADY KNOWS US COMPLETELY. God tests our faith so that WE know what our strengths and weaknesses are, and so we know what to improve on.
Take a second to think about how strong your faith is when you're going through a hard time, vs when everything is sunshine & rainbows.
God also tests us in our: patience, love, sacrifice, and humility. (obviously more but those are the ones that I'm going to talk about)
P A T I E N C E
James 1:19-20 says, "My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires."
When God puts you in a situation where you succeed OR fail to, "be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry," He is testing your patience. He could be trying to tell you that patience is a STRENGTH of yours, or he could be telling you that it is a WEAKNESS, and that is something you need to work on.
L O V E
John 21:15-17 says, "When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" "Yes Lord," he said, "you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my lambs." Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep." The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."
Now, "you know all things; you know that I love you." I took this in the sense that, God knows exactly how much we love him. But, some ways I feel that God tests my love for him, is by my choice to listen to a sermon, rather than watch tv, or go to church instead of sleeping in, or instead of calling my boyfriend, read my Bible. My choice in all of these situations shows ME how much I love him. HE already knows. He's trying to let me know how I can love HIM more.
S A C R A F I C E
Genesis 22:7-8 says, "Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?" "Yes my son?" Abraham replied. "The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together."
In this chapter of Genesis, God tests Abraham's faith. The Lord tells Abraham to go to the mountain, and sacrifice his only son; and he almost did, before God told him to stop. Some ways God tests our ability to sacrifice things for Him, could be: spending the weekend with Him rather than with friends, not that it SHOULD be called "sacrificing" but, sacrificing a couple hours of our Sunday to go to church, literally ANY TIME we have the chance to sacrifice something for Him, that is God trying to show you that you need to work on sacrificing time for Him.
H U M I L I T Y
1 Corinthians 1:18-19 says, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.'"
When you are in a situation where you feel too prideful, you need to take a step back and remember- and i hope this doesn't sound too insensitive- you would be nothing without God. That big homework assignment you just got done, wouldn't have been done without God. All those friends you have, you wouldn't have them without God.
So if you only get ONE thing out of this (way too long, I know I'm sorry) Worship Wednesday, take away the fact that when God tests us, He's not testing us for HIS sake, He's testing us so that WE can realize our strengths and weaknesses and things we need to improve on.
So think about all those hard times, and good times. How strong is your faith really? In what ways can you improve your patience, love, sacrifice, humility, or faith in general? START TODAY!!!! Tomorrow isn't promised, so start today. You won't regret it.
Hey y'all! So sorry today's bible study was so long, I tried to shorten it as much as I could but I wanted to give y'all lots of details on each topic in case you were taking notes!! As always, like this and DM me or just scroll down on the homepage to give me feedback! Everything is appreciated! Have a beautiful Wednesday!
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