Is Life A Test?

Job

Is life on earth a test?  Jesus said, “Take up your cross and follow me.”  The cross was a test for Jesus.  He could have said no…

Satan is a player in this life on earth.  It is his spirit that rules the world.  Right now he has possession of the world.  Just as in the days of Job he wanders to and fro, walking up and down it.  He has regular discussions with God about his opinions of people on earth and what makes us tick.  Satan claims that Job is blameless, upright, fears God, and turns away from evil only because God has put a hedge around him, has blessed him, and given him many possessions.  God allows Job to be put to the test.

When man and woman are taken out of the enclosed garden and put out into the world, will they still look to, love, and obey God as he and she were designed to do?  God never constrains; we always have a choice.  Job and Jesus’ choices are recorded in the Scriptures.  “In all this Job did not sin.”

Jesus said, “Not my will but God’s be done.”

From the beginning of time God wanted his created beings to be in His Presence; through thick and thin; in sickness and in health; rich or poor.  His people are His treasure, His Bride.  But He will never coerce us.  He chooses us and wants us to choose Him out of our love and our own free will.

Satan is our adversary.  He is always around us, crouching at the door, waiting to pounce.  God explained this to Cain (Genesis 4:7) and it holds true to us today.  “Sin wants you; its desire is for you.  But you must rule over it.”

Ruling over it suggests that it is a test of wills and that will always produce some suffering.  Our suffering purges us of all impurity, just as the fire rids the metal of impurities.  When the battle is done and the suffering subsides we will be healed and whole in the life to come and that life is eternal. 

Is life on earth a test?  My experience would make me say yes.  I suspect Job would say yes and I suspect Jesus would say yes.  But Jesus tells us very clearly, “My kingdom is not founded in this world.”  If I follow Jesus then I am not of this world.  When I keep this vision in my heart, soul, and mind the temptations will weaken, the trials will wither away, and the test will be passed and won.