God’s Pop Quizzes and Your Struggling Answers

God’s tests are most often pop quizzes. You don’t see them coming.

If you knew you’d have a flat tire tomorrow morning in order to test your patience, you’d have your jack and crowbar ready at hand.

But that’s not a real test.

(Photo by Monkey Business Images, via Vivozoom)

A real test hits your blindside. It tests the mettle of your theology, and often, it even seems to contradict it.

• You have walked with God, but a family member suddenly gets terribly ill.
• Your integrity on the job has been stellar, but someone else gets the promotion.
• You have worked hard on a project, but the doors for its success stay closed.
• You get an unexpected phone call with news that chills your soul.

In the end, the pop quizzes we experience usually boil down to one thing.

Our Struggling Answers to Hard Questions

If the expectations of our Christian life are that our faithfulness will result in uninterrupted safety, continual protection, and abundant provision, we will misunderstand God’s leading.

Consider:

• Abram did nothing wrong to experience a famine, but God took him there (Genesis 12:10).
• Joseph did nothing wrong to get sold into Egypt, but God took him there (Genesis 37:28).
• Hannah did nothing wrong to experience barrenness, but God took her there (1 Samuel 1:5).
• Hezekiah did nothing wrong to have his life cut short, but God took him there (Isaiah 38:1).

You could make your own list, couldn’t you? So could I.

Two Choices: True or False

When these pop quizzes get dropped in our lives, it’s like catching a live grenade. We have a decision how we will react.

We can believe what is true or what is false.

1. We can tell ourselves: God is good. This couldn’t possibly be God’s will. I need to find a way out of this at all costs.
2. Or we can tell ourselves: My God is sovereign. I realize there is no escape from this test, so I’m choosing to trust Him when everything in me wants to run.

God’s tests usually boil down to one thing: trust.

The pain of living in God’s will is nothing compared to the pain of living out of it. (Tweet that.)

Take Out a Blank Sheet of Paper

Has the Lord handed you a pop quiz today? Are your struggling with the answers?

While you may never fully understand why God gives such pop quizzes, it is clear what He wants you to do in the midst of the test.

1. Trust Him.
2. Obey Him.

Even when God’s will is difficult, the solution will never be found outside His will. (Tweet that.)

Trust and obey. That much you will always know to do.

Question: What have you learned from God’s pop quizzes?