When God Tests Your "Bottom Lines"

The Proving, the Peril, the Prize

by Matthew Chapman

 

And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. And He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD. Thus you are to know in your heart that the LORD your God was disciplining you just as a man disciplines his son. (Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 5)

The Proving

  The Lord God is fashioning a bride for His Son, Jesus, by eternally putting together those who have proven themselves to be faithful to Him. In other words, they are the "true worshippers" whom "the Father seeks" who overcome during their time on earth, triumphing by faith in Him over the world, the flesh, and the devil, because they value the Prize, the Bridegroom, more than their own lives (John 4:23, 1 John 5:4, Phil. 3:12, Rev. 21:1-7).

  The Lord Jesus loves us totally, wholly, and completely. And because this was His "bottom-line" toward us, it was demonstrated and proven out during His time upon the earth-He made the ultimate initiation toward us for eternal marriage by laying down His life so that we who believe might become partakers of Him. Thus He seeks a bride who corresponds to Him and loves Him in kind: totally, wholly, and completely (i.e., "with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength," Matt. 22:35 -37), and who demonstrates and proves out this love during their time upon the earth by making their ultimate responses back to Him. All of us are daily living out our answer to His invitation to the wedding feast, and our days come together to build a testimony of either loving Him above all else or loving our flesh and the things of the world. Herein lies the reality of "many are called, but few are chosen" (Matt. 22:1-14).

  If you have said yes to the Lord Jesus and have set out to be His follower, you need to know that your love and devotion to Him will be tested again and again. Whatever is truly in your heart-your "bottom lines"-will be proven out through the tribulation and fiery trials of this life. If your bottom-line is Jesus, it will be evident in how you walk overall through the many furnaces of affliction and hardship that will come in life. If your bottom-line is self-love, self-preservation, and self-gratification, it too will be evident in how you walk overall through the many furnaces of affliction and hardship that will come in this life. Whatever is in our heart will be borne out and, in the end, we will all be proven to be either good soil that bears Him fruit that remains, soil implanted with thorns, rocky soil, or roadside soil (Mark 4:1-23, John 15:1-16).

  Is the Lord some sort of insecure God who needs us to do all of these things in order to convince Him that we really do love Him so He can finally feel loved? No, of course not. He knew what was in our heart before we even existed, and He has known, and has even declared, "the end from the beginning" (Is. 46:8-10). Then why the proving? Because He is a God who desires a people who love Him freely, of their own will, regardless of circumstances, without any coercion or robotic programming on His part. Thus He has given us freedom to choose and has afforded to each one of us, literally, the opportunity of a lifetime , however long it happens to be, to manifest what is truly in our heart with regard to Him and His Son. Our words, deeds, choices, and actions, can be a venue for "laying up treasure in heaven" and acquiring "wedding clothes" in preparation for the marriage feast of the Lamb, or they can be a venue for storing up wrath, judgment, and recompense for a life wasted on selfish and worldly pursuits (Matt. 6:19-24, 24:11-14; Rev. 19:6-9, 21:1-7, 26-27; 22:10-17, 3:1-6).

 

  In a very real sense, each moment of our life carries with it such tests. Will we choose to abide in Christ and walk by the Spirit or make provision for our flesh? Will we walk with Him by faith and obey Him or will we lean on our own understanding, yield to fear, and sin? Will we seek what pleases Him or what pleases our own desires? Will we deny ourselves and unashamedly follow Him or indulge our many appetites and seek the approval of man? Our life, which is made up of moment-by-moment choices, will compile the ultimate answer to these questions.

The Peril

  In the 27+ years that I have walked with the Lord (at the time of this writing), I have come to recognize a consistent pattern in the lives of Christians that has a direct correlation to their present spiritual condition. It also foreshadows the kind of recompense they will receive from the Lord in eternity (Matt. 16:23-27, 2 Cor. 5:9-10, Rev. 22:10-17). In many ways, a Christian's life is linear-it has a beginning and progresses to an end. It is a "race" with a starting point, a course to run, and a finish line; a walk on a path that begins with our being born of the Spirit and ends with our departure from this life and appearance before the judgment seat of Christ (1 Cor. 9:24-27, 2 Cor. 5:4-10, 2 Tim. 4:5-8, Heb. 12:1-2). And yet within this ongoing linear path, there is a cycle that seems to repeat itself over and over, and the cycle is this: God Himself allows and even orchestrates specific circumstances and situations to come upon our lives that tests and proves out what is in our heart with regard to Him-our love for Him, our devotion to Him, our faithfulness to His word, and our steadfastness to continue in His will even when there is resistance, hardship, and persecution.

  When we fail the test, God mercifully arranges a new set of circumstances to retest this very area of our lives again so that we might overcome. If we then draw upon His life and win, we become more established in His grace, and, chances are, we will continue to overcome as these types of trials and temptations come our way, resulting in a testimony of faithfulness and sanctification. If we fail the test yet again, we become more hardened and desensitized to the Lord, and we will likely continue to fall as these types of trials and temptations come our way, resulting in a testimony of faithlessness and corruption.

 If we are honest, we all have to admit that much of our time is spent sputtering around, stumbling and bumbling our way along, wasting grandiose amounts of time in the process, in our erratic forward progress in the Lord. Within this, however, there is the ongoing, purifying process of the Holy Spirit working to bring us to maturity and sanctification. We all grow imperfectly, even those who prove out to be "good soil" (Luke 8:15). Those sons and daughters who receive their many chastenings and "are trained by" the discipline of the Father will grow ever more holy and set apart for Him (Heb. 12:4-11). As they gain ground and grow older in the Lord, they become more and more stable, unshakeable, purposed, and seasoned with grace, wisdom, discernment, patience, and love. Such is the growth process of those to whom He will one day say, "Well done, good and faithful servant" (Matt. 25:21, 23).

  That said, I want to look specifically at this cycle with regard to those who make what I will call "fateful" bad choices and give a warning. In the previous two paragraphs, I mostly spoke of the daily life and "imperfect" growth of a faithful child of God. But what I am referring to here are those moments that periodically come along in life where the stakes on how and what we choose are, if you will, even higher. In other words, they are choices that carry serious consequences and have life-altering ramifications. Be warned: Many times these choices are not obvious when they come. You "kind of" know that what you are doing is wrong, and you subtly think it's a mess you can clean up later without much problem, but you have no idea of what death, destruction, heartbreak, and regret you are really setting in motion.

  The scriptures contain numerous such examples of the kind of fateful choices I am talking about: Adam and Eve eating the fruit of the tree (Gen. 3); Lot's wife looking back at Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19); the children of Israel believing the bad report of the 10 unbelieving spies (Num. 13-14); Moses striking the Rock twice (Num. 20:6-12); Saul disobeying the Lord by sparing Agag and the choices livestock of the Amalekites (1 Sam. 15); David choosing to commit adultery and murder (2 Sam. 11-12); Judas betraying Jesus for thirty pieces of silver (Matt. 26-14-16, 27:1-5); and Ananias and Sapphira lying to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:1-11); to name a few.

  Let's consider more closely that fateful choice made by the children of Israel . Paul said that all that happened with them is "an example for us. written for our instruction. so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved" (1 Cor. 10:1-13). First note the parallels. These were God's unique, chosen people. God met them and delivered them through all the plagues that came upon Egypt . They had been saved from death by the blood of the Passover lamb (a type of salvation in Jesus, the true Passover Lamb of God), delivered from Egypt (a type of the world under Satan's control, Col. 1:13), brought out through the parting of the Red Sea (which corresponds to baptism, 1 Cor. 10:1-6), and led along by the cloud by day and pillar of fire by night (which corresponds to our being led by the Holy Spirit, Rom. 8:14). He had forbearance with their grumbling and complaining along the way to the Promised Land, and miraculously provided them with water and food.

  All of these real life circumstances were opportunities God had afforded them to know Him and see that He is faithful to perform His word and take care of His own whom He is leading. But when it came time for them to believe His word and enter the Land, they believed the bad report instead and chose to cower in fear before their enemies, grumble against the Lord and His anointed leadership through Moses, judge the situation as impossible, and view their prospects as abysmal. In doing so, every single 20+ year-old individual of the entire nation of chosen people sealed their fate to die in the 40 years of wilderness wandering and never see the Promised Land as recompense from God for their unbelief and disobedience, except Joshua and Caleb who believed God.

  The next morning, after seeing that they had blown it big time, they approached the border of the Land and said, "Here we are; we have indeed sinned, but now we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised" (Num. 14:39-45). But this was not another training exercise where they could brush off, tell God they were sorry, and then pick up where they left off. This was a fateful choice. God had decreed their punishment, it was irreversible (Num. 14:20-38), and despite Moses' warnings, they foolishly tried to bypass their reaping and enter the Land anyway, and were "stricken and beaten down" by the Amalekites and Canaanites (v. 44-45). This now stands as that generation's testimony forever.

  Saints, "these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come" (1 Cor. 10:11). Do we think we are exempt from reaping similar consequences when we sow the same kinds of choices and actions (Heb. 2:1-4, 3:7-4:1, 6:4-12, 10:26-31)? Are you a Christian who "began to build and was not able to finish," who is ridiculed by the world for a life of discipleship that fell short (Luke 14:25-35)? Are you going along with the multitudes of "rocky soil" Christians who "receive the word of God with joy" when you hear it but then "fall away when affliction or persecution arises because of the word" when you are walking it out (Mark 4:1-23)? What of the fornication, the adultery, the pornography, the adulterous flirting (in person and through the Internet), and the like that is so rampant in the church? What of the love of money and desires to get rich among God's people? How many Christians have hardened against the Lord in order to pursue wealth and have reaped, just like the scriptures say, "wandering away from the faith. ruin. destruction. and piercing themselves through with many griefs" (1 Tim. 6:3-19)? How many times has Jesus been denied by His own because they feared the loss of man's approval and the repercussions upon their lives that complete obedience would certainly bring? How many times have His people been brought into a "Valley of Decision" regarding a matter of truth in God, but then they "respectfully" sided with compromise, evil rationalizations, and falsehoods? All of these and many other types of trials and temptations prove out our bottom lines.

  I implore you to fear God and turn away from evil! Yes, He is a Redeemer. Yes, He can forgive sin. Yes, He can "restore the years that the locust have eaten." Yes, we have all heard wonderful testimonies of God mercifully saving people out of all sorts of horrible sin and situations. But is that what you, as a believer, want to "bank on" as you flippantly and carelessly "do your own thing"? Are you so sure that your notion of a safety net from God really exists in the face of your making willful choices to sin, grumble, and walk in unbelief (Heb. 10:26-31)?

"And that slave who knew his master's will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, shall receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. And from everyone who has been given much shall much be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.

(Luke 12:47-48)

"He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." (Revelation 3:5-6. NOTE: If your theology doesn't allow for Jesus to "erase from the book of life" the "name" of someone who truly belongs to His church to whom He is speaking this word, then you have a problem with both the Lord and the scriptures! See Rev. 2:11, 20:14-15, 21:27, 22:14-15, and especially 22:19)

  The writer of Hebrews draws from another such example in order to warn us new covenant believers of the peril of making similar fateful choices:

See to it that. there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.

(Hebrews 12:15-17)

  If you read the account of what Esau did in Genesis 25:19-34, it seems like what he did was, on the surface, not that big of deal. The man was "starving" and "about to die" from hunger, and he simply wanted a bowl of soup. Jacob then made Esau a seemingly pestering proposal about him first selling him his birthright in exchange for the meal. I can picture Esau saying, "Okay, okay, Jacob, you can have my birthright, just hurry up with the stew-I'm ready to eat!" Do you think Esau thought that this silly trade-off (in his eyes) really meant something or that this agreement was "legally binding"? Do you think he had any idea that this transaction made in a tent on some anonymous afternoon over a bowl of stew would be his legacy before God and man for eternity (Mal. 1:1-5)? I'm sure he probably didn't, but, even so, "Esau despised his birthright" and made a fateful choice that exposed his bottom-line (v. 34).

  Saints, this is an admonition given to us-New Testament Christians-that we are to "see to"! Do we despise our birthright in Christ in exchange for obtaining whatever varieties of gratification our flesh loves, which, in terms of real and eternal importance, are on par with a bowl of soup?! Oh, may we have hearts-bottom lines-like Jacob who loved the inheritance and had a heart for the final, long-term reward rather than one like Esau who preferred short-sighted, immediate, worldly satisfactions. May we abhor the "Esau" in us, and quickly repent every time we catch ourselves "opting for the bowl of stew."

  For those of you who have failed the test, who have made [what appear to be] fateful choices, I encourage you to cry out to God in brokenness and seek Him for true, lasting repentance. Who is to say your life is not salvageable at this point? God alone is Judge. Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Peter betrayed Jesus and denied knowing Him three times because he feared man. For Judas, his fate was sealed. For Peter, this became a life altering experience of brokenness, humility, restoration, and ultimately preparation for effective service to God as an apostle. We all feel the weight of this word, and it is good for us to fear God and "behold" His "severity" every bit as much as His kindness (Rom. 11:22, Ps. 19:9, Prov. 1:7).

 

The Prize 

  Who among us will have regret for the suffering they endured in order to be faithful to Jesus when they stand before Him on that day and hear Him say to them, "Well done, good and faithful slave. enter into the joy of your Master," and "Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matt. 25:21, 34)? As Paul said,

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, IF indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. (Romans 8:16-18)

  Paul also said that our practice should be to "press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:7-21). What is "the prize"? The Lord Jesus Himself, the Bridegroom! "For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end" (Heb. 3:14). Speaking of the inheritance, Jesus also said, "He who overcomes will inherit these things" (Rev. 21:7). Inherit what things? A new heaven and a new earth. Entrance and a place in the holy city, New Jerusalem, the bride made ready, the tabernacle of God. God Himself dwelling among them and wiping away every tear from their eyes. No more death, mourning, crying, or pain (vv. 1-6). Read Jesus' seven letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 and see so much more that is promised "to him who overcomes" and who heeds "what the Spirit is saying to the churches." Along with the Lord Jesus, they receive everything pertaining to the eternal marriage with Him. Is there anything worth more than this? Is there anything or anyone to love more than Him? Let us then fix our hope on Him and "run with endurance" (Heb. 12:1-13)!

Pursue. the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.

(Hebrews 12:14)

 

 

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