Why
should we Test Ourselves?
Self-test kits are available for many things. If you do
electrical repairs at home, you would keep an electric supply tester. We can
have an oximeter, glucose meter, and several other devices to check our health parameters
even at home. I had been using a digital BP apparatus for several years and to
replace it I ordered an analog meter and have been waiting for it to arrive. We
do not want to take chances with our life. This should be true in our spiritual
life too. We often get short-sighted and forget about the long term. We
strive to succeed on temporary matters and more often ignore the eternal. We
tend to walk by sight than in faith. We believe a lot of things, but what is
our faith?
Apostle Paul encourages us to test our faith. There is a
final test but we do not need to wait until then to get surprised. We can test
our faith ourselves with the tool of the Word of God.
“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith;
test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of
course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will
discover that we have not failed the test. Now we pray to God that you
will not do anything wrong—not so that people will see that we have stood the
test but so that you will do what is right…” (2 Corinthians 13:5-7)
We
need to have a Beginning and Continue with the End in Mind
We should not make assumptions about our faith and
spiritual destiny. We may be sincerely or even blindly wrong if we fail to test
it in the light of the Word of God. Many people assume, they are believers in
God and they want to be God-fearing. Most people are god fearers. Some people
are illiterate while most are educated. Education is not being able to read and
write in a language. We do not stop with UKG but keep studying to complete our
education in the best way possible. Then we go on into more professional
training to be competent in our field of profession. Going to a university
daily does not make you a student; many come there for various purposes. To be
a student of that university you need to be enrolled. You need to be an active
student, doing all the assignments and course requirements and preparing
yourself for the tests and final tests until you are graduated. You continue
your higher studies and training the same way.
If so why should we compromise ourselves to a cheap
religious life, thinking we are spiritual believers? We need to have a
spiritual birth for spiritual life. That is becoming a child of God to be in
God’s spiritual family. We need to feed on the Word of God through daily
meditation and study of the Word of God, listen to His voice, and walk with
Him. We need to have spiritual milk and then solid food to grow. We need to be
practicing Christian.
A mere belief will not make us a Child of God and a
disciple of Christ
“Now
while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the
signs he was performing and believed in his name. But
Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about
mankind, for he knew what was in each person” (John 2:23-25)
Some people always pray for miracles. They are driven by signs and wonders. Many who believe in God by miracles may have a good beginning but often do not last like the seed fell on the rocky soil. The words we use in our communications reveal our knowledge, understanding, and worldview; so also our prayers. We should pray for our needs and can pray for our wants as well but why should we demand God to do miracles in our lives always? The crowd may ask a magician for miracles, but the Children of God ask their Father for their needs, whatever their needs are as they are in His family and would want to intimately communicate with Him.
If God is our master and we are His servants, we should go to Him always in prayer and supplication, without ceasing and consistently. God does miracles and His purpose is not to perform miracles. Demanding a miracle is often to test or believe, and that belief does not necessarily turn to be faith in God.
Many people believed in Jesus seeing the miracles but not many had faith in him.
“After these things, Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias. And a great multitude followed him because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased. (John 6:1-2).
As they continued to stay around
and Jesus continued to share about himself and teach about
eternal things and entering into heaven, through fellowshipping with him, they
could not continue to follow in him.
“When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard
saying; who can listen to it?” ….. Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending
to where he was before? It is the Spirit
who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have
spoken to you are spirit and life…. , “This is why I told you that
no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”…After this many of his
disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. (John
6:60-66). (To know what he taught,
please read the full chapter).
Know what we Believe and See
if we have the Right Faith
If we assume that everyone who believes Jesus is the son of God, savior of the world and died for the sins of the world; enters the Kingdom
of God irrespective
of what they do that is not the right gospel that Jesus or the Apostles taught.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my
Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord,
Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your
name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them,
‘I never knew you; depart from me you workers of lawlessness.’
(Matthew 7:21-23).
How can we do the will of the Father in heaven,
unless we study the Word of God, meditate on it daily and walk with Jesus to be
like him?! Without a mutual relationship with Jesus Christ, and abiding together with him, how can we walk with God? Without God in us, how can we know His
perfect will?! God does not live in temples built by human hands; we do not go to a temple to communicate with God or call on Him. We are called to be the Temple of God where the Spirit of God can live. (Read more from Acts 7:48, 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 2 Corinthians 6:16)
“Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of
good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace
shall be with you”. (2
Corinthians 13:11)
