When our Faith Is Tested:Sometimes when difficult things come into our lives, we wonder why. Though we must be willing to trust and obey even if we don’t know why or aren’t given that answer for some time, we do need to distinguish between tempting and testing. Satan tempts; God tests. Under Temptation we should give recognition of what is really in our hearts. Satan loves to tempt us with the sin embedded in our hearts, (Jer. 17:9) Recognition should bring repentance and acknowledgment to God; Testing is in the order to make our faith stronger and to prove our faith. Testing reveals to God where we are in terms of our faith as God already knows whether or not we will pass a given test. It is as we go through the fire of testing and trial that we can be strengthened, sanctified, and purified. James 1:2-4 emphasizes the sanctifying and strengthening results of testing when it says, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." So it is imperative that we discern between testing through various trials and the tempting of the devil. We are never to say or think when tempting comes that God is doing this, but rather Satan has been be allowed to tempt us in various ways, that which is in our hearts be exposed.Scripture expressly denounces this in James 1:13 which says, "Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone." God does allow Satan to tempt us in various ways, we can be tempted for we are human and evilness dwells in all of us. For Paul said, "the old man surfaces." and he does. Our hearts are being made pure through Christ. 1 Corinthians 10:12-13 Wherefore Let him that thinks he stand strong take heed lest he fall. Therefore hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man; But God is FAITHFUL, who will not allow you to be tempted above what ye are able. And will provide you with a way of escape.When God tests us, He wants us to succeed. He wants us to know Him. Our faith is real and refined by fire. 1 Peter 1:6-7 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire---may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.We see from this passage that God test all men who are his. In other words, God doesn’t put us through a refining process for no reason. He is not malicious or desiring to see us suffer through trials. Just as a goldsmith only puts the metal into the fire in order to get rid of impurities, so is the way of our Lord. God will test us so that OUR impurities WILL COME OUT, we WILL see GREATER at the End of the trial, Like Job did. Job 42:5-6 My ears have heard you, but "But now my eyes SEE YOU", therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.Job's impurities were worked out of him by God testing his faith. Afflicting Job until what God wanted from Job was accomplished. In the End Job REPENTED of his attitude, his pride, and his ignorance of God. Not only was Job's faith increased through the testing, but Job actually could see God. Not the person, but the unseen God. We can be sure that God crafts each test specifically to show us individually and personally what our defects and impurities are so that we can be sanctified and changed. Testing is really something to hope in rather than to dread. But we must be willing to go through the fire and stand the testing, that we will see and know our Lord better than before. God put Abraham through quite a test in Genesis 22. God had promised Abraham descendants through Isaac that would be as numerous as the sand on the seashore. Yet, out of the blue it seemed, God commanded Abraham to do something that totally contradicted His promised blessing to him. He was to take his son Isaac and offer him up to God as a sacrifice.Now God is not honored by sacrificing children or human beings in any way shape or form. Yet He commanded Abraham to do this. Certainly Abraham must have been initially baffled at this directive, wondering why. But Abraham had great faith, and so he obeyed God, even going as far as binding up his son and taking the knife up in readiness to slaughter his only son (Genesis 22:9-10). We learn what Abraham was really thinking in Hebrews 11:17-19 which says, "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son; it was he to whom it was said, ‘IN ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS SHALL BE CALLED.’ He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type" (italics mine). Abraham was willing to slaughter Isaac because he was so confident that God knew what He was doing and that God would keep His promise to him even if it meant bringing Isaac back from the dead. That is amazing faith. Abraham’s faith was evident, and God told Abraham to stop and provided instead a ram to sacrifice. Of course, God never intended for Isaac to be killed. This was merely a test of Abraham’s heart. Which did he love more: the promised son from God or the God Who had promised his son? This was the question for Abraham, and Abraham passed the test, demonstrating that He loved and trusted God even more than the blessings of God themselves (Genesis 22:12). Abraham called the place "The Lord will provide," and God went on to reiterate His promised blessing to Abraham (Genesis 22:16-18).The testing of God is to reveal just how much we believe God. God is powerfully glorified by those who do continue to believe even when things don’t make sense and perhaps even appear to be contradictory, as in Abraham’s case. When in testing and the fire burns hotly, TRUST God, for He will know we are his friend. For we will see Jesus Christ, at His Coming.I leave you with this promise from God during the tribulation. Zechariah 13:9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined and will try them as gold is tired: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them; I will say, this is my people and they shall say this is the Lord who is our God. In Christ's lovefriend