“Don’t touch the things Daddy puts in the center of the table. Sometimes they are hot!” This message, repeated over and over, seemed to fall on deaf ears. Then one evening it happened—the little hand just couldn’t resist reaching out to touch the edge of the hot dish, and tears and wails followed. Ice and kisses provided a quick cure, but the lesson was firmly established in one little mind. The next meal, when a dish was set in the middle of the table, a shrill little voice rang out, “Don’t touch. Hot!”
“Don’t stand on the chair. It isn’t safe.” “Don’t play with the electrical outlet. You could get shocked.” We give many such instructions to two-year-olds. Why is this necessary? Because they don’t have the experience to evaluate consequences.
In many ways, we are like two-year-olds. Even when we have many years behind us, in God’s time, we are still infants. There is so much that our experience has not yet taught us, or that we have failed to learn.
This is evident in the way we respond to God’s warnings. Often, when we read the instructions in His inspired word, we act as if they don’t apply to us, and we persist in behaviors that endanger our temporal and eternal happiness. Sometimes we get burned. Sometimes we fall. “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” is an instruction designed to protect our families and our happiness. “Thou shalt not bear false witness,” yet we bend the truth, often getting ourselves into uncomfortable places.
There are times in this life when we are hurt through no fault of our own. However, I believe that sometimes our Father allows us to experience the results of our actions to help us learn lessons of patience, trust and forgiveness to prepare us for greater challenges.
On three specific occasions, Abraham failed to trust God and take Him at His word. Finally God brought him to the final examination. “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about” (Gen. 22:2).
God brings us challenges at different stages in our lives, sometimes more than once, until we have learned the lesson He desires us to learn. As we successfully demonstrate our trust, God gives us ability to handle more difficult challenges.
In the mission that each of us is called to, we have frequent opportunities to develop trust. After Abraham recognized God’s faithfulness through the birth of Isaac and God’s saving of Lot, he was strengthened in his faith and ready for the ultimate test God brought. Are you looking for those faith-building events in your life? Are you preparing for the tests ahead? Do you welcome the challenges God provides or allows?
“Beloved do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” 1 Peter 4:12
