God tested Abraham, and He will test me also

From: October 9 – 15, 2007

Pastor: Edith Cruz

Study: # 513 Topic: "God tested Abraham, and He will test me also" Exodus 20:20

God works with us everyday and we can see His mercy. When God works with us we grow in fear towards Him, we begin to be fearful people towards God, to live as He wants us to live. This is if we want to go with Jesus when He comes for His people. The fears we face in this world such as fear to failure, fear of an accident, fear that our sons and daughters may leave us, etc, will begin to pass away as we learn to fear God. We begin to come off from these things when God becomes first in our lives. Every human being shall be tested. The trials we must go through will make us grow and teach us how to see beyond our circumstances. When God tests us it is to see how we will react in that moment and see how we are. Each person reacts in a different way even under similar circumstances. When we are going through trials it is because God wants us to turn directly to Him. We only have one mediator, and it is Christ. We must never look for another human being as a mediator between us and God. God does not want a mediator, but for us to go directly to Him through His Son Jesus. Loyalty is God’s principle, not men’s principle; then, we must be faithful to God always, and obedient. To fear God is a good thing because this will keep us in alert so that we will carry out our duties, rules and our behavior. We can stagger when the enemy comes but we will be sustained in God. He wants us to be capable of saying “we fear God.” God presents Himself to His people as the God of the law. He wants us to fear Him so that we will not sin when times of trials come. We are tested because God wants us to grow and become more firm. God wants us to live through our trials as we walk so that we will grow. God is always there to guide us and teach us each day through the Scriptures to come before Him so that we will not be driven by the things that surround us. He has prepared a place for us, where we will live with Him forever. If there is someone who knows us well, it is God. We must totally depend on Him because, who else can we hold on to? We must depend on Him in our days of scarcity, of abundance, of happiness and sadness, for everything comes from Him. Trials will make us grow in peace and make us mature. No one can work on our behalf. This is why we must depend on God, rest in Him, live for Him because He is the one who works with our lives. God never gets tired of working with our lives. Sometimes we want to take a break from God and seek for support in another person, but God wants us to depend on Him, that we learn to rest completely in Him. When we came to Christ we seek for someone to support us, but God wants us to know who He is, to fear Him so that we will not sin. It is better for us to have Jehovah as our God. Let us not lean on mankind because, if we do, we will begin to forget God and when the circumstances come we will have no help. The only thing that we can do for one another is pray. If we have believed in God we must understand that we need moments of loneliness with Him. We must always seek time to spend with God in prayer each day because He wants to work with us directly. Genesis 22: 1, 2 God tested Abraham. He knew his duties. We sometimes live so attached to people that we cannot recognize when God is testing us. Abraham knew how to walk in discretion, he wasn’t going to sin. Since he had communion with God he was able to be faithful to God. As long as we

remain in communion with God we will be faithful, but sometimes we are more faithful to men than to God. The men and women who fear God will remain faithful. The fear that Abraham had towards God allowed him to be serene. To walk with prudence must always be a quality in our lives. Abraham had to understand that God was testing him because he was going to demand something from him. Our fear will help us avoid sinning against God and this will prove how much we love Him. God asked from Abraham the only thing that he had. He didn't ask him to sacrifice lambs, because Abraham had too much; he was a prosperous man. But God asked for his only son. When God tests us, we must not go to anyone but to Him. During our trials it is God and us, and no one else. God knows where He is taking us. We must be alert so that we will be able to open our eyes. Abraham understood that this was his obligation in that moment with God. It was his duty to respond because he was alert, he would not sin and he would be faithful. One does not sin because of temptation but because there is no fear of God. How many complaints and arguments in the moment of the trial! Each one of us has to go through our trials. Abraham held his head high. After God spoke to him he got up early the next day. He prepared his donkeys and his servants, his son, and the firewood, because he could not offer a sacrifice without firewood, and he was going to sacrifice his son. But God saw him and told him that he knew that he feared God. Abraham did not refuse to his trial. Let us not escape from our trials because then they will follow us a lifetime. Sometimes we believe that what God has demanded from us is difficult. John 6:5 God knows what He is going to do, but for us it is unknown. The power belongs to Jesus; this is why we must fear God to not sin. When God demands from us it is not the man but the power that comes from God and not from us. The more God tests us the more He will come on our behalf, but we have to show how much we love Him. For this reason, the more time we spent in solitude with Him the more we will know Him. God tests us to see if we are faithful to the duties He has given us. Jesus tested Philip. Jesus knew that He was going to perform a miracle. In that moment He was going to see if Philip believed or not. Even before the foundation of the earth it was written that this day Philip would be tested. Acts 16: 23, 24 When God tests us we want solutions, but when these come we have to suffer them. Paul had many lashes. Sometimes we worry about what others think. There was much suffering for Paul; it is to know that God chose him to test him. James 1:4 We should know that the trials that we have to go through are necessary to test our faith. If we say that we have faith we know that we will be tested by God and not by men. Each one will demonstrate where they are really standing because it is God who tests us. Our trials allow us to see what is really in us and what we are capable of doing to not fall. We must understand that the trials that we receive are not our enemies but our friends to develop the character that we have to have as Christians. Trials will fill us with patience, nothing will drown us, but rather we will laugh because we will know patience and the power of God in our lives. Amen.