A New Normal #16 – Testing
May 5, 2020
It is clear that the last few weeks, the future weeks, and months will be times of testing. International agencies will be tested for their efficiency and accuracy. Governments will be tested financially and otherwise. Businesses will be tested for their stalwartness. People will be tested for their resolve. Hospitals will be tested. Churches will be tested. Financial institutions will be tested, and the lot goes on. Many will simply survive, some will come out even stronger, in effect reinventing themselves, and some will succumb to the present measures of adversity.
Some, I will assert, will find new opportunities to thrive in the midst of need. Many charlatans, as we have already seen, will float to the surface.
This is nothing new in light of pandemics and earthly adversity. Yet, many do not look forward with zeal the level of assaying we now face. Many of our vices will be tested as to which are necessary, and which are not. Which are seed, and which are chaff? Which are part of the next normal and which are not. Some, it will be determined, are better left behind.
Testing can be good, as it evidences the dross needing to be removed. To that measure of good God allows testing to happen.
Consider the words from James 1:2-4:
“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
I am fairly certain that few of us are considering this as a time of joy, still, God is moving. While many would be saying “Lord, get me out of this,” We should be saying, “Lord, what do you want me to get out of this?”
Though it is fitting to pray for God’s deliverance from any adversity, it may be wiser to seek what God is doing on a higher level. Somewhere in the mix, God is working on our character.
God, help us, we pray!
Pastor Kelly /‘.’\