Do troubles and trials push you toward God – or away?
Look back over your week. How is your spiritual health? Has it been a week with any trials, troubles, and struggles? Did pressures increase at work, at home, in your health or finances? What happened inside of you? Did you cry out to the Lord, fall upon His grace, turn from any wicked way? Or did you seethe in anger, wallow in self-pity or, worst of all, harden your heart to spiritual things?
The test of pruning (which is affirmative) and chastening (which is disciplinary) is in our response.
That is one of the simplest ways to test what is going on in your life.
Pruning always draws us closer; chastening, initially, can push us away.
TEST #1: When troubles came this week, did you remain joyful, did you read God’s Word with hunger, and talk to Him often in prayer? A fruitful believer who experiences the nearness of their Heavenly Father as he prunes, rises to God’s challenge. We move toward the Lord.
TEST #2: Or when troubles came this week, did joylessness fill your heart, mind and life? Did your relationship with the Lord seem blighted by sadness or lethargy? Did the Word of God seem unimportant, boring, and dull? We often initially move away or grow cold toward the Lord.
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