Article

 Rick Ferrell - February, 2024

Can you remember when you were in school and you spent your time preparing for a test?  Some of you were probably able to take a test with no issue.  You didn’t have to study a lot. You were able to take what you heard or read in the classroom and do very well when tested on the material.

Others may have been like me.  I could study and study and when the test came it felt like I studied the wrong chapter.  I could provide all the answers, but a lot of times it seemed like they were answers to questions they weren’t asking.

Regardless of one’s ability to handle the test itself, when it came to the “test time,” we would feel pressure.  Whether we were striving to be the best, or striving just to not fail.  It was the test that brought pressure.

So it is with life.  We experience tests that many times cause us to stop in our tracks and ponder and wonder how we can get through this.

We find many tests in the Bible that give us a glimpse on how to deal and work through our testing times.

Job was a man that in many ways was tried and tested beyond anything we could imagine.

I’m sure you know the story.  Job was a wealthy man:

Job 1:3 - His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.

It’s been estimated that in today’s dollars, Job’s wealth would be over 56 million dollars.  

WOW!

Job seemed to have it all. “This man was the greatest of all the men of the east”.

But, Job’s wealth, Job’s fame, Job’s influence, nor Job being perfect and upright before God could keep him from being tried and tested.

He lost it all.  His children, his animals, his servants.  He lost it all.

Yet in vs. 21, 22 we read:

Job 1:21, 22 - And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.22 In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

Job 23:8-10 - Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him:9 On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him:10 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

I want us to look at Biblical examples of testing that will hopefully encourage us to STAY THE COURSE. 

One of the metaphors that the Bible says about life is that it is a test. God continually tests people’s character, faith, obedience, love, integrity, and loyalty. Character is both developed and revealed by testing. And the truth of the matter is – All of Life is a Test. You are always being tested. God is constantly watching how you respond to people, problems, success, conflict, illness, disappointment and even the weather. 

You see trials can be:

A Test of Patience.

Trials and tribulations can be a test of patience. The Lord has a timing for fulfilling His plans and purposes. Often His plans take much longer than we expect. In the meantime we go through severe trials and tribulations and they seem to last forever. These seasons are tests of our patience. Are we willing to wait for God’s timing? 

Romans 5:3, 4 - And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

One of the most difficult things to endure in this life is God’s timing.  It’s human nature.  When we want something, we want it now.  

We live in a microwave society that wants us to believe that we can have whatever we desire and we can have it right now.  That’s why debt and people living beyond their means is at an all time high. The mentality of having what you want now, without having to earn it has been extremely detrimental to our society.

Going through tests is never easy, but it’s the only way to ever achieve the hope you desire.  Your test will result in patience which will result in experience which will result in hope.

Allow me to go off on a tangent here for just a moment.

There is no better friend in dealing with everyday life than experience.  When you are experienced, that means you’ve dealt with this or that before.  

You can rightly speak to the situation.  Trying to follow somebody with no experience is like listening to someone tell you how to raise kids, who have none of their own.  Or, like receiving marriage counseling from one who’s never been married.  Or, like getting your gardening tips from somebody who’s never put a seed in the ground.

It just doesn’t work.

But how many of us have had to lean on the experience of others to make it through our test.  

There’s nothing like it.

There’s nothing like it because their experience helps cement your experience which brings you hope.

Let’s follow the progression backwards now:

Hope comes from experience, experience comes from patience and patience comes by tests.

Romans 12:12 - Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;

Galatians 6:9 - And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

Romans 8:25 - But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

Ephesians 4:2 - With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;

The only way for you and I to get anywhere and to have anything in life is to live life with patience.  When we get in a hurry, we make mistakes.  It’s easy to be so obsessed with our routine and day to day activities that with impatience we can miss the very one the Lord places in our path to minister to.

There is nothing more important than what you’re doing for the Lord.  And there are a lot of demands placed upon us by many in our lives.  Whether you’re in retail, manufacturing, healthcare or education, there are deadlines, goals, grades and all kinds of stresses put upon you.  

But you can meet every one of these challenges with patience.  You’ll live better, feel better, look better and be a whole lot better to be around if you do.

Listen to what the scripture says in James chapter 1.

James 1:2-4 - My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

Job’s life was a test of patience. 

James 5:11 - Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

We know how the story of Job ends.  

Job 42:10, 12 - And the LORD turned the captivity of Job…and the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning…

Finally, the Bible says:

Job 1:1 - There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.

I want to leave you with a question today.

Which was it?

Did Job show extraordinary patience because he was perfect and upright before God?

Or

Was Job perfect and upright before God because he showed such extraordinary patience?

Where do you stand?

The only way for us to live this life with the patience that the Bible clearly decrees for us to have is to walk as close as we possibly can with the Lord.

Are you passing your test of patience?