Kept in the Test

“Bless our God … who has kept our soul among the living and has not let our feet slip. For you, O God, have tested us …” (Psalm 66:8-9)

In the furnace, we are painfully aware of all that God allows.

But when we leave, we look back and perceive all that God did not allow.

God may have tried you like silver. Perhaps he brought you into the net. He may have laid a crushing burden on your back.

But through it all, do you see what God did not allow?

He did not allow your feet to slip. 

He did not allow pain without purpose.

He did not allow your faith to fail.

When you were too weak to hold onto your love for God, God was holding on for you.

Jesus let the devil take Peter through the fire (Luke 22:31-32).

But Jesus did not let the devil take Peter’s faith. 

For Peter to persevere, he needed to abandon all confidence in his own conviction. The heat of the furnace melted away Peter’s zeal to reveal Christ alone as the incombustible core.

That’s why God tests. He lets “men ride over your head” to show you how to wear the helmet of salvation. He lays a “crushing burden on your back” to bring you into an easy yoke. He takes you through fire to reveal the fourth Man in the furnace—through water to show the Shepherd who splits seas.

The trial doesn’t last forever. 

God won’t allow that.

He has a better place of permanence for you—and he won’t let you stop short. The testing place is the tutor for the open space. Through affliction, we learn how to eternally enjoy God’s abundance.