Are you being tested? What’s your crush strength?

pixabay crush

As I was reading Psalm 11:5 recently, a few words grabbed my attention: “The Lord trieth the righteous…”

Hmmm… the Lord trieth the righteous.

Other translations use the words ‘test’ or ‘examine’.

Let’s take a look at it…

THE LORD TRIETH THE RIGHTEOUS…

The same Hebrew word is used in this verse: The refining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts. Proverbs 17:3

The Hebrew word means to prove, examine, trial, scrutinise, test, tempt, try (of gold, persons, the heart, man of God). It made me think about the testing of a new aircraft in a wind tunnel. Or the testing of metals in a steel factory.

IT HAS TO BE TESTED… to find out how strong it is.

I remember reading something about this in Streams of the Desert, one of my favourite devotionals, so I grabbed my copy and flipped through to find it. Ah, there it is… August 28th.

“I stood once in the test room of a great steel mill…Steel had been tested to the limit and marked with figures that showed its breaking point. Some pieces had been twisted until they broke and the strength was marked on them… Some had been compressed to the crushing point and also marked. The master of the steel mill knew just what these pieces of steel would stand under strain. He knew just what they would bear if placed in the great ship, building or bridge… God would have us like these toughened pieces of steel, able to bear twisting and crushing to the uttermost without collapse. He wants us to be, not hothouse plants, but storm-beaten oaks… to make us such, He must needs bring us into His testing room of suffering…”

While flipping the pages to find it, I also spotted these entries…

“It is His trust in You that explains the trials of life…”

“Affliction does not hit the saint by chance… If you have been praying to know more of Christ, do not be surprised if He takes you aside into a desert place, or leads you into a furnace of pain…”

And this one… (one of my favourites)

“To trust in spite of the look of being forsaken; to keep crying out into the vast, whence comes no returning voice… and yet believe that God is awake and utterly loving; to desire nothing but what comes meant for us from His hand… fearing only lest faith should fail… such is faith indeed.”

And then this one…

“Do not punish me Lord, by taking my cross from me… Here and here alone is given thee to suffer for God’s sake… so soon? Let me go back and suffer yet awhile more patiently. I have not yet praised God…” :o

This life… right now… we are in the testing room. Just like the jet plane in the wind testing tunnel. God alone knows where He is going to fit us into eternity. He alone knows just what we will be able to bear when we are placed in His Heavenly equivalent of the ‘great ship, building, or bridge…’

Meanwhile, we HAVE TO BE TESTED – to find out how strong we are.

To find out what our crush strength is.

So next time we are feeling crushed, maybe it will help us to remember that.

Gulp! Oh Lord, we’re gonna need your help to pass!

Tell them about Jesus!

*¨*•.ღ.•*¨*

Collect your FREE BONUS GIFTS when you sign up to follow me. What will they be? Click here to find out. If you like my work, please tell others and ‘like’ this page. Your kind comments make my day! You can also follow Paper Gifts for Estefany on…