Fifth: Being Tested
Becoming a believer in Jesus Christ does not mean that your life will suddenly become easier. In fact, you may begin to face challenges that you have never had to deal with before!
Once your family members and friends find out that you have accepted Jesus Christ into your life, they may test you to see if your decision was real. They may say or do things to see if you are sincere in your desire to live for Christ. They may try to test you to see if you will still participate in sinful activities.
Their actions might be motivated, in part, by fear that they might lose their relationship with you. They might resent God in your life if they feel that He will come between you and them. They may fear that their relationships with you will never be the same. If your friends are accustomed to having you participate with them in activities that were wrong, they may try to pull you back into those activities.
Although you will want to demonstrate love to all of your friends and family members, separation may be necessary in some cases. It may be painful, but they may separate themselves from you, or you may decide that you need to separate yourself from some of them and find a new set of friends who also love Jesus.
The challenge for you will be to stand strong when you are tested. Every true believer in Christ experiences persecution and trials in life. When it happens to you, you can either stand strong and prevail over the difficulties, or give up and return to your old life. In the parable of the sower, Jesus describes those who give up and never experience the wonderful things that God intended for them.
“But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word.”—Matthew 13:21 (NLT)
But there are great rewards for standing strong and enduring the tests that you will experience.
“God will bless you when others hate you and won’t have anything to do with you. God will bless you when people insult you and say cruel things about you, all because you are a follower of the Son of Man. Long ago your own people did these same things to the prophets. So when this happens to you, be happy and jump for joy! You will have a great reward in heaven.”—Luke 6:22-23 (CEV)
In the book of Revelation, Jesus promises awesome rewards to individuals who stand strong and overcome.
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”—Revelation 2:7 (NKJV)
“He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.”—Revelation 2:11 (NKJV)
“To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.”—Revelation 2:17 (NKJV)
“And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron; They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’—as I also have received from My Father; and I will give him the morning star.”—Revelation 2:26-27 (NKJV)
“He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.”—Revelation 3:5 (NKJV)
“He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.”—Revelation 3:12 (NKJV)
The highest positions in the Kingdom of God are reserved for those individuals who overcome.
“To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”—Revelation 3:21-22 (NKJV)
A key to standing strong during times of testing is to prepare yourself before the test. Jesus said that people quit during times of testing because they do not have deep roots. In order to overcome any tests that you face, you must deepen and strengthen your roots in God and in His Word. You must deepen your relationship to God through regular prayer, and you must strengthen your faith by feeding on His written Word and hearing God speak to you through Scripture. Establish regular daily times of prayer, and dedicate time each day to reading the Bible, expecting God to speak to you as you read. As you do this faithfully, your roots in God will be strengthened.
Stephen did this. He strengthened his roots in God. The Bible describes him as a “a man with great faith and full of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 6:5), and a man “full of faith and power” (Acts 6:8). He needed that, because being deeply rooted in God enabled him to endure an extreme test when he was falsely accused and brought before the ruling council to give account for himself (Acts 6 and 7). Even when the council became an enraged mob and rushed him out of the city to kill him, Stephen’s faith was strong in God and he called on God to forgive his killers, even as they were hurling stones at him.
As you strengthen your roots in God, you can also have unwavering faith that will enable you to stand strong even in the face of the most extreme tests.
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”—John 16:33 (NIV)
