50 Days of Prayer for Fellowship CRC

1 Cor. 10:13 – “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it” (NSRV).

Do you know someone who likes going to escape rooms? These are games in which a players discover clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks in one or more rooms in order to escape from the game room.  People play these games for the same reasons that others play word or number puzzles, or work on jigsaw puzzles—to test themselves, keep their minds sharp, give themselves a challenge. But don’t worry—they people that make all of these puzzles, including escape rooms, actually want you to succeed.  Just as teachers who give quizzes, tests and examinations really want their students to succeed, and pass.

Life is full of tests, challenges and obstacles. Sometimes God tests us. Why would God test the children he loves? For our improvement, of course.  Because it builds up in character, endurance and empathy (among other things). 

But God knows how we are made, and God is faithful to those he has made. He is never going to give us a test which will destroy us. He will always provide a way out so that, if the test become too much for us, we will not get harmed.   Have you experienced this?  Maybe you can only see it afterwards, looking back. But as you do see how God has kept this promised in the past, if you are paying attention you can begin to see in the present how God is keeping this promise. And sometimes, just the knowledge that our faithful God is there in the test is all that we need to keep going through even the difficult tests.

How about you? What has been your experiences with testing?

So we pray:
Father God, we praise you right now because you are faithful.  You will be with us for all of our lives.  And because you love us, you act for our improvement.  We confess that we would usually prefer not to have the tests, so we push back.  But we do know that you love us. Only let us not fail or fall; if it is too much, please do provide a way out so that we can, by your grace, win the big test of life.