The Bible says: ‘God tested Abraham, and said…“Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” So Abraham…went to the place of which God had told him’ (vv. 1-3 NKJV). When we feel like God’s testing us, we can end up questioning why. And the answer is that it’s so He can prove His faithfulness to us, and we can prove our faithfulness to Him. But also, it’s to help us grow. We can’t become spiritually mature without times of testing. They’re the times that show us where our trust lies, and how much of it we have. It reminds us of how much we need Him. That day when Abraham was tested, he proved there was nothing he loved more than God. And that was the day when God introduced Himself to Abraham as ‘Jehovah Jireh,’ which means ‘the Lord who provides’. God will also test us to make sure our identity and our security are found in Him alone. He should be priority in our lives, but it’s easy for other things to get in the way of that. We can get distracted by things we enjoy, other people and even serving God. We don’t need to fear that God’s going to take away what’s important to us, but we do sometimes need a reminder that God should be the most important thing. He loves to bless us with gifts. The Bible says: ‘Every good and perfect gift is from above’ (James 1:17 NIV). But the gift shouldn’t become more important to us than the Giver. Being tested isn’t fun, but it’s necessary. So let’s welcome the testing.

What Now?

Take some time to think through where you’re placing your identity and security. Is there anything that’s taken God’s place as the most important thing in your life?