Test Time
by Cynthia Bezek, editor of Pray!

It’s back-to-school time. For kids, that means tests.

I didn’t like tests any more than the next person, so I breathed a sigh of relief when I finished my last university course. “No more tests for me,�?I gloated.

I was wrong.

It turns out that teachers didn’t make up the idea of tests—God did. From as far back as Abraham (Gen. 22:1), God has tested His people to see what they’re made of.

God tests us for various reasons—to humble us, to see what’s in our hearts, to find out if we’ll obey Him (Dt. 8:2), to refine us (Is. 48:10), to develop our character (Jas. 1:3), and even to reward us (1 Cor. 3:13-14, Jas. 1:12).

Perhaps one of the hardest tests is to wait on God in prayer. We pray, claim His promises, trust, praise, and pray some more—yet sometimes He seems so silent. When that happens, I’m tempted to doubt: Does He see that I’m hurting down here? Does He really hear? Does He really love me? Will He fulfill His promises, after all?

If I were to camp on any of those thoughts, I might give up and stop praying. I might discredit God’s character. I might move on to Plan B—and fail the test.

But if, in spite of delays, disappointments, and divine silence, I continue to persevere in prayer, trusting God to be all He says He is, then I triumph with heroes like Job. In his darkest hour “Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing�?(1:22), but prayed until God’s answer came.

I still don’t like tests. But recognizing them—and realizing why God gives them—makes them easier to walk through. Jesus wondered if He’d “find faith on the earth�?when He returned (Lk. 18:8). I, for one, hope He’ll find it in me. That’s a test I want to ace!