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I have yet to come across anyone who happily volunteers themselves to go through tests and trials. Being tested by the Father and experiencing trials is something none of us want to go through. If you have been living long enough, you have been tested by God, have gone through some form of hardship, or have felt the weight of pain that has shaken you to your core. It’s not a good feeling. I will be the first one to say that if you haven’t heard it already. But at the end of the day, it’s not about the tests the Father puts you through, it’s how you choose to go through the tests and what awaits you on the other side of them.

There are so many people who received blessings from God because they chose to obey Him. One of the people who fall into this category is Abraham. Abraham is known as the father of many nations, but he did not start off that way. This whole obedience walk began for Abram (Abraham’s original name- his name was changed to Abraham when God established a covenant with him) in Genesis 12 when God told him to leave his country and go to the land He would lead him to, which would later end up being Canaan. Abraham took his wife Sarai (who would later become Sarah) and left without hesitation. By the time Abraham left Haran, he was already 75 years old, but even in his old age, God promised Abraham that he would make him a great nation and make his name great (Genesis 12:2).

Abraham believed in the covenant God made with him, and years later, Sarah became pregnant- when she was 90 years old and Abraham was 100 years old and gave birth to a son named Isaac. It is through Isaac that the promise for Abraham was carried out. Through Isaac, the whole earth would be blessed because through Abraham’s descendants, the Savior came into the world, and Jesus was the fulfillment of the promise that was made. God spoke to Abraham when he was 75 years old, but his promised child wasn’t born until he was 100 years old. That’s 25 years Abraham held on to a word that God gave him before he saw it come to pass.

In Genesis 21, Isaac was born, but as you read the next chapter, we now see that God is now testing Abraham in regards to Isaac. As Abraham’s faith grew, God instructed him to give his son Isaac as a sacrifice as a way to prove how faithful Abraham was to Him. Abraham obeyed God and took Isaac to Mount Moriah, laid Isaac on an altar he had built and just moments before Abraham was about to sacrifice his son, God told him not to kill Isaac. The Father told Abraham to look at a bush, and had a ram for him to sacrifice instead. Again, Abraham remembered the promise God told him about Isaac. He had enough faith and obedience to believe that God would not have sent him a son just to have him sacrificed because it was through Isaac that Abraham was going to have an innumerable amount of descendants throughout the earth.

There are so many explanations as to why the Father allows us to be tested but one reason why He allows us to be tested is so that He can bless us after the test is over. You’re probably asking yourself, “If God really wants to bless us, why doesn’t He just do it, why the tests?” One reason is that tests confuse the enemy. Tests may come through the enemy trying to break us as an attempt to make us turn around and walk away from the Father so that we will not receive our blessings. There will be times when the tests will come in the form of refinement so that the Father can get some things out of us (bad attitude, pride, lust, fear, etc.) so that He gets some things in us (strength, courage, humility). Tests also allow room for us to grow in God, and draw closer to Him, so that we will be spiritually mature enough to handle the blessings He has for us to receive.

Abraham taught us a valuable lesson: as long as you continue to obey the words that God speaks to you, you will continue to receive the blessings that He has for you. Do not look at your tests, your situations, or even yourself, as a measure to determine if God will fulfill the promises He has for you, but walk in the obedience of His Word believing that He has already fulfilled His blessings for you. Keep believing that that which God speaks to you is that which He has already done for you.

My prayer for you is that you will understand that the tests you have faced, are facing, or will face has a purpose behind them. That if you hold on, and make to the other side, you will receive the blessings connected to your tests. Just like a student has to pass the test to go to the next grade in school, you too have to pass the test to go to the next level in God. That if you have faith during the test, you will have the victory that only the Father can provide for you because of the test in Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.