The Test of Character

“Tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors.” James 1:2-3 (MSG)

People are like tea bags—sometimes you don't know what's in them until you drop them in hot water.

In The Living Bible paraphrase, Jeremiah 17:10 says that God “searches all hearts and examines deepest motives so he can give to each person his right reward, according to his deeds.”

So, how does God inspect and test me? The Bible says, “I have tested you in the furnace of affliction” (Isaiah 48:10 NKJV).

Pain is a measuring tool to test my character, and my reaction to it reveals a lot about me. James 1:2-3 says in The Message paraphrase, “Tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors.”

Pain exposes the real me and shows what I'm really like inside. My image and reputation are what everybody thinks I am. But my character is what I really am. And when I'm in pain, it’s hard to keep up appearances.

I can say that I have integrity, but do I lower my standard when life is painful? I might say I'm committed, but do I want to throw in the towel when life is difficult? I say I'm a person of faith, but do I want to give up when pain comes my way? My faith, commitment, integrity, and maturity can be measured by my reaction to pain.     

Going through a tough time right now might be a test. God’s showing me what’s really going on in my heart so he can help me grow and become more like him—and learn to trust and follow him more closely.

In summary:

James 1:2-3 reminds us that trials reveal the true state of our faith—just like hot water brings out what’s inside a tea bag, pressure and pain expose what’s really in my heart. God uses difficult seasons to test and refine me, not to harm me, but to show me where I truly stand in terms of integrity, commitment, and trust in Him. While my image is what others see, my character is who I am when everything is stripped away. Pain reveals that. And when I go through hardship, it’s often God’s way of helping me grow, mature, and become more like Him—if I'm willing to trust Him through it.

Bottom Line:

God uses pressure and pain to reveal who I really am—not to shame me, but to grow my character, deepen my faith, and make me more like Him.

How God Tests Me and Then Blesses Me

In Luke 16:11-13 it says, “If you cannot be trusted with this wicked wealth, who will trust you with true wealth? And if you cannot be trusted with what belongs to someone else, who will give you something that will be your own? You cannot be the slave of two masters. You will like one more than the other or be more loyal to one than to the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (CEV)

Faithful people are generous, even when they don’t have anything to give.

Anybody can be generous when they have a surplus. You can be generous with your time when you’ve got a lot of extra time. You can be generous with your money when you’ve got a lot of extra money. You can be generous with your energy when you’ve got extra energy to spend. It’s when you don’t have enough time for yourself, you don’t have enough energy for yourself, you don’t have enough money for yourself, you don’t have enough talent for yourself that God says, “This is a test. I’m watching you to see if you are generous. Will you be faithful, and will you trust me?”

Here are five principles in which God will test us and then bless us:

1. God gives to generous people.

God wants you to be generous, because he wants you to be like him. And obeying him will bring his blessing.

2. Obeying God’s vision will bring God’s provision.

If you do what God tells you to do, then God will bring along the resources you need at the right time. What he’s given you the vision for he will give you the provision for.

3. When you do all that God tells you to do, he does what you can’t do.

God often asks you to do the impossible to stretch your faith. When you give what little you have, God multiples it and makes up for it.

4. When you have a need, you sow a seed.

Whatever you need in your life, sow that as a seed, and it will come back to you.

5. There’s always a delay between sowing and reaping.

There is a season between planting and harvesting. What’s going on in the delay? It’s a test of your faith.

So, will I be faithful to give when I have little? Will I keep on doing the right thing? Will I do what God wants me to do, no matter the cost? When I am faithful in this, I will be amazed at how God will provide.

I like to think that I am generous with time, money and my abilities. However, for the most part God has blessed me with abundance, so I don’t think much about shortages. As I consider this, shortages occur more often with my time. When this happens I get frustrated, feel like I’m not doing what I can or annoyed that I don’t want to use what I have. I need to reconsider my mindset when this happens. I need to be open handed and give what God has entrusted me with. There are a lot of people who need to be cared for and brought to God. Some of my part in this is to be there for people who are having financial behavior struggles and difficulties. God has given me talent, time and a desire to help those people. I need to ask God to help me get and be around those individuals and allow me to help and not just wait for them to show up. 

The Little Things Count

In Luke 16:10 it says, “Whoever is faithful in small matters will be faithful in large ones; whoever is dishonest in small matters will be dishonest in large ones.” (GNT)

God uses little things to test my integrity. It’s not just the big things that count—even though that’s what the world wants me to focus on. But the Bible tells me that God is looking at the smallest details of my life to see if I am faithful to him.

This is true in every area of life, including leadership. It’s often thought that it’s the big things in life that create a leader. No! The big crises in life reveal leadership, but leadership is not built in the big things of life. It’s built in the details of life. That’s where integrity shows up—in the stuff that nobody sees, in the stuff behind the scenes, in the small, unseen, unspectacular choices of life where I do the right thing, even though nobody’s ever going to see it.

Faithfulness requires integrity, and God tests my integrity in the little things.

Jesus said, “Whoever is faithful in small matters will be faithful in large ones; whoever is dishonest in small matters will be dishonest in large ones” (Luke 16:10 GNT). He’s saying my public blessing is determined by my private integrity.

Every time a politician has a scandal, I can always count on that person’s defenders to come out and say, “It really shouldn’t matter what their private life is like.” Have you ever heard that one? “It really shouldn’t matter what a person does in their private life. It doesn’t have anything to do with them as leaders.”

It has everything to do with them as leaders! Why? Because if a man lies to his wife, he’ll lie to his constituents. If a woman lies to her best friend, to whom she said, “Till death do us part,” she will cheat on us, voters! Count on it!

My public blessing as a leader comes because of private integrity that nobody ever sees. My public blessing as a person comes from your private integrity that nobody will ever see. God uses little things to test my integrity. And faithfulness in the small things will lead to blessings in ways only God can provide.

My integrity is often put on the line in money matters. God calls me to be honest even in small details I could easily ignore. Heaven's riches are far more valuable than earthly wealth. But if I am not trustworthy with my money here (no matter how much or little I have), I will be unfit to handle the vast riches of God's Kingdom. So I need to see that I maintain my integrity in all matters, whether big or small. 

Testing Comes Before Blessing

In Zechariah 13:9 I read, “I will refine them like silver and purify them like gold. They will call on my name, and I will answer them.” (NLT)

Some prayers are answered immediately, while others take weeks, months, or even years. But there’s good news: While I’m praying for God’s answer, I’m going to learn some things that I can’t learn any other way.

In the waiting, there is blessing. One of the blessings is that I learn more about myself when I don’t instantly get everything I want. While working on the prayer, God was working on me.

Why do I have to go through fire? I’m learning that it's for testing and purification. As I pray about something over and over again, my faith tests reveal more about me.

God says in Zechariah 13:9, “I will refine them like silver and purify them like gold” (NLT).

Gold is tested by putting it in a big vat and heating it until it gets so hot that all the impurities are burned off. How do metalsmiths know when gold and silver are pure? When they can see their reflection in them.

God can see his reflection in me as well when the impurities have burned out of my life—after I’ve been through the fire. He says that, after he’s done the testing and purification, “They will call on my name, and I will answer them” (Zechariah 13:9 NLT).

Answered prayer comes after the test. Before every blessing, there is a testing. God tests me with stress before he trusts me with success. These are the principles of persistent prayer.

In this passage from Zechariah, the believers were refined like silver and gold through the fire of their difficult circumstances. So I need to determine to be part of God's remnant, that small part of the whole that is obedient to him. I need to obey God no matter what the rest of the world does. This may mean trials and troubles at times; but as fire purifies gold and silver, I too will be purified and made more like Christ.

God is going to test me before he blesses me. And in that test, I’m going to learn a lot about myself. If I give up praying, I’m never going to learn the lessons that help me become more like Jesus.

So I will keep praying with persistence each day. And remember that after the testing, the blessing will come. 

What’s on the Other Side of My Troubles?

In 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 I read, “Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (NIV)

When a crisis hits, I need to do the smart things necessary to get through it. I need to listen to God’s Word and godly advice, to make good choices, and then to keep moving forward while remembering that this will pass. It’s not going to last forever!

The Bible says in 1 Peter 4:12, “Dear friends, don’t be bewildered or surprised when you go through the fiery trials ahead, for this is no strange, unusual thing that is going to happen to you” (TLB).

In this world, there will be times of trial and testing. It’s guaranteed! Since sin entered the world, nothing works perfectly. Everything on this planet is broken—the weather, the economy, our bodies, and even our best plans. Nothing works perfectly in this life because sin broke everything on Earth.

Isaiah 24 says, “The land suffers for the sins of its people . . . [they] have twisted the laws of God and broken his everlasting commands . . . The earth has broken down in utter collapse” (Isaiah 24:4-5, 19 TLB).

On Earth, everything is lost, abandoned, and confused. Even nature is groaning. We may even contemplate or wonder why God allowed sin and evil to enter the world; it’s because God wanted us to have a choice.

And we’re the ones who have chosen to cause evil. We’re the ones who are selfish and self-centered and cause problems in society and in our environment.

It’s good to remember or be reminded that this Earth is not heaven. That’s why Jesus taught us to pray the Lord’s Prayer—”your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10 NIV). Heaven is a perfect place with no sorrow, sickness, sadness, or stress, but we shouldn’t expect heaven on Earth. One day we’ll get there, but we’re not there yet.

So I will get through whatever trial I’m facing right now. Soon enough I will marvel at all that God did in the midst of my trouble as I look at it from the other side.

There will be more challenges to face and adversity to endure. But I can always hope in this truth: “Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18 NIV).

In summary, these troubles and sufferings I face are, after all, quite small and won’t last very long. Yet this short time of distress will result in God’s richest blessing upon me forever and ever! So I should not just look at what I can see right now, the troubles all around me, but I look forward to the joys in heaven which I have not yet seen. The troubles will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever.

Any troubles I encounter should not diminish my faith or disillusion me. I realize that there is purpose in my trials and suffering. My problems and limitations have several benefits: (1) They remind me of Christ's suffering for me; (2) they keep me from pride; (3) they cause me to look beyond this brief life; (4) they give me opportunities to prove my faith to others; and (5) they give God the opportunity to demonstrate his power. Therefore I can learn to see my troubles as opportunities.

The ultimate hope I can have whenever I experience a terrible illness, persecution, or pain is the realization that this life is not all there is. There is life after death. Knowing that I will live forever with God in a place without sin, trouble, or suffering should help me live above any pain that I face.  

What to Do When My Hope Dies

In Romans 4:18 I read, “Abraham, when hope was dead within him, went on hoping in faith . . . He relied on the word of God.” (PHILLIPS)

How do I know when hope has died in my life? I’ll start using the word “never.” I’m never going to get married. I’m never going to graduate. I’m never going to get well. I’m never going to get out of debt. I’m never going to be able to let go of my past and forget all of that shame and heartache. I’m never going to be able to change. I’m never going to see this situation turn around. That’s when hope has died—when I have reached a dead end and don’t see a way out.

So what should I do? Romans 4:18 reminds me, “Abraham, when hope was dead within him, went on hoping in faith . . . He relied on the word of God” (PHILLIPS).

When I’m at a dead end—when it’s hard to hold on to hope—I need God’s Word, the Bible. Read it. Study it. Memorize it. Think about it. Write it down on little notecards and take them wherever I go. 

The Bible is full of promises, and nothing else can encourage me like it can. When I rely on the Word and trust in its promises, it will revive me emotionally. I won’t panic because you’ll be reminded that, even though something is out of my control, it’s not out of God’s control.

A dead end is a test of faith. The Bible says in Hebrews 11:17, “While God was testing him, Abraham still trusted in God and his promises, and so he offered up his son Isaac” (TLB). When God said he wanted Abraham to sacrifice his son, Abraham didn’t blink an eye. He didn’t panic—because he remembered what God could do. He relied on what God had promised him. 

Sometimes, like it did for Abraham, it looks like God wants me to give up my most precious dream. Will I be able to offer that to him in faith, trusting in God’s deliverance?

Things are never as bleak as they seem. If I see no way out, it’s because I’m looking from a human viewpoint, not God’s. 

Romans 4:20 says, “Abraham never doubted. He believed in God, for his faith and trust grew ever stronger, and he praised God for this blessing even before it happened” (TLB).

A promise is only as good as the character of the person who makes the promise. The Bible says God cannot lie because he is complete truth. If he makes a promise to me, he’s going to fulfill it. It will happen exactly as he has said. 

So when I’m at a dead end, trust in God’s truth.