| This Is A Test... |
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| Written by GodSpeaks.com | |
| Mar 04, 2010 at 03:18 AM | |
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This Is A Test
I will no longer drive out the nations that Joshua left unconquered when he died. I did this to test Israel-to see whether or not they would follow the ways of the LORD - Judges 2:21-22 (NLT) As we saw yesterday, Israel fell short of God's will because they didn't drive out the enemies who lived alongside them in the Promised Land. They lost their spiritual momentum, and now God gives us a glimpse of His take on the situation. Notice what He says: "I will no longer drive out the nations that Joshua left unconquered." In other words, if Israel wasn't willing to obey the Lord by taking action against the enemy, then He wasn't going to supernaturally bail them out. They chose these conditions, and now they would have to live with them. But we also need to notice that God had a purpose in all this. "I did this to test Israel." Another translation reads, "So that through them I may test Israel." Nothing reveals what's inside a person like adversity. God wanted to reveal what was in the hearts of his people, and He would use their enemies to do it. Now carry this principle over to our experience as Christians. There are some things that God instantaneously and miraculously delivers us from when we become His. But then there are other things that we continue to struggle with. "Lord, why won't you just take this out of my life?" The reason He doesn't snap His fingers and remove every struggle is because He wants to test our hearts through those struggles. Don't misunderstand. It's never God's will for us to fall to sin. He
doesn't tempt us to sin (James 1:13). But He does allow exposure to sin
to reveal what we're made of. Do we sinfully submit or righteously
resist? The answer goes a long way in revealing what's inside our
hearts. (Taken from GodSpeaks.com
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