Have you ever wondered why God tested Adam’s and Eve’s obedience? He tested them because he wanted something more than innocent people; he wanted perfected people.
Innocence clothed the first humans. They were guiltless of any wrong doing. They were like naive military recruits: genuinely a part of the military, but certainly not battle tested. The first humans’ love for God was real, but imperfect because it was untested.
Our loving God designed a way of transforming innocence into perfection. He so much desired to be loved with all the human heart, emotions and strength!
Every test and trial we face offers us the opportunity to further perfect our love for God. Every choice we make to love God unconditionally matures our love for him. But guess what? Tests are painful. Quite frankly, we Christians sometimes want out of the perfecting process. We are content to love God at the current level. We choose to avoid the pain that perfects our love for the one who first loved us.
So, when you want to avoid the pain that perfects your love for God, choose to hang in there! Didn’t your Leader, Jesus, decide that perfected love for Father was more valuable than escaping pain? Sure, he struggled. He even asked Father to remove the pain. Then he spent three prayer sessions with Father’s Spirit. During these sessions, the Holy Spirit injected love for Father into Jesus. Loving Father felt so good that Jesus decided to stay in the perfecting process. As a result, enduring the pain of trials enabled Jesus to love Father with all his heart, soul and strength.
Perfect love for Father is worth any price we must pay.
Scripture referred to: Hebrews 5:8
Thanks for the spiritual insight you shared in terms of God’s perfecting process vs plain untested innocence. Your C&E entry answered some questions I had begun to believe there was no longlasting answer for. Thanks again for sharing. I’m wondering how many thousands of others could echo these senriments?