If It Never Rained

In the middle of the night, rain pouring down outside, beating on the window just feet from where I lay, I heard a PING...PING...PING coming from the hall. There's a little door in the hall which accesses the air conditioner unit. The sound was coming from inside. I opened the door to find quite a volume of water dripping from a hole above the air conditioner. You know, if it never rained, I never would have noticed the leaky roof. There would have been no problem.

1 Peter 1:6-7 says this:
6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,
7 so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

How do you know you have faith in God? How do you know you have faith which will stand up under pressure? How do you know your faith isn't full of holes and leaks like a sieve? Your faith must be tested. Remember Abraham. He was justified by faith, but his faith was tested in extreme ways. He was told to leave his homeland and go...somewhere, he didn't know where. He was told to sacrifice Isaac, his only son. After he raised his knife to slay his child, God said, "Now I KNOW that you fear God" (Genesis 22:12). His faith was tested, and it passed inspection.

Our faith is constantly being tested in small ways. Every once in a while, we get a big test. Some great temptation stands before us; we have a big choice to make. We might lose our job. We might lose a friend. We might get in trouble. We might be miserable for a long time. But when we make the RIGHT choice on these tough questions, we prove our faith towards God.

If it never rained, we would never find the leaks.

God bless,
Nathan