are you being tested - part trois

Let's take a look at some more tests:

There is the wilderness test.

Have you ever felt spiritually dry with a low joy level in your walk with God?

Perhaps you are not even thinking about it....why not sit back this evening and ask yourself - did I feel God's presence today? Did I hear God speak to me?

The wilderness test reveals our ability (or lack thereof) to handle adversity and change, and as a result we enter into a new level of growth and spirituality.

The Bible tells us in Deuteronomy 8:15,16, "He led you through the vast and dreadful desert...to...test you so that in the end it might go well with you."

In the wilderness test we SUBMIT TO SHORT TERM PAIN, CONFIDENT THAT IN THE END IT WILL PRODUCE LONG TERM GAIN.

There is the authority test.

Oh, my, but this is a hard one.

Before Paul took the Gospel to the Gentiles he first went to Jerusalem and submitted his plan to the apostles, asking for their blessing with a "Nobody is going to tell me what to do" attitude.

God placed David under a flawed leader called Saul.

It's not very healthy when your boss wants to kill you - to take you out.

But here's the principle:

You can learn as much from the mistakes of a failure as you can from the achievements of a success.

Only someone who can follow can be a truly great leader.

Do you chafe under the leadership of your boss today? Realize that the person is in your life for a purpose, and that you will learn far more about leadership and about yourself from them than you will from anybody else.

That's hard, because many times, our boss is someone who either worked with us or for us in the past. I have found that people tend to take on the personality of their position. Someone who was once a friend and confidant can become a personal relational challenge because of their new role and their response to that role.

Yet, again, God has the person in our lives for a purpose.

Tough medicine I know...sometimes the cure can be harder than the disease....but healthy and necessary.