Daily Meditations on the Bible / We stand with Israel
There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job…
Summary: The Book of Job is very instructive when it comes to being tested by God. We can learn a lot from listening in on Job’s conversation with his three friends.
Continue reading “Job 1:1 – My Own Eyes”
When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone…
Let us be clear on this point: Tempting and testing are two different things.
Testing is a processed used to measure or strengthen. (e.g. – I took a test to see if I qualified for a job I wanted. See James 1: 12)
Tempting is an attempt to entice a person to do what they know is wrong. (e.g. – A coworker tried to tell me it is okay to steal supplies from work.)
God is okay with testing people. Testing has a wide range of uses in the Bible. God is not okay with people doing what they know is wrong.
James is clear on this point and we need to be, too.
Continue reading “Tempting or Testing? – James 1: 13”
…because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
The word, “test” is one of those words with many connotations and meanings. In today’s verse James explains what he means by suggesting we should consider “trials of many kinds” as “pure joy.” Testing, he says, produces perseverance.
He is not talking about the kind of testing that an engineer might use to determine how strong something is. That kind of test requires pushing a material or design to the breaking point. When testing a material that way, we measure where the failure is. That information is used to design something that will not fail when it undergoes a different kind of test.
Continue reading “Testing – James 1: 3”