3 Signs God Is Putting You Through a Test Right Now!

James 1:12

What you are trusting in today will be tested tomorrow. Let that sink in: what you are trusting in today will be tested tomorrow.

It feels terrible to fail. But imagine if you could stop failing and start passing the tests. How amazing would that feel? So how can you start winning? It starts with trust.

The reason God tests us is so we will trust in the right thing. Here are 3 instances where God is putting you through a test.

1. If God Is Withholding Something Good from You, This Is a Sign He’s Testing You

Whatever you are willing to be mad at God about – that is your actual god. When you turn from God because he has not given you this certain thing, it shows you love this thing more than you love God himself. So many people have commented on my videos with statements like:

• “I don’t believe in God anymore. If he was real, he never would have let my spouse die.”
• “God doesn’t care about me. If he did, I wouldn’t be single all these years.”
• “Well, I tried to do what the Bible says and I’m still not blessed, so the Bible must not be true.”

Statements like these don’t say anything about God. Rather, these types of statements are telling us about the condition of our own hearts and where our true allegiance lies. If we will only love and follow God when we get the gift we want from God, really that gift is our true god and not Jesus.

In love, God withholds good things when we’ve made them ultimate things so this test will expose that we need to realign our hearts. These types of tests are meant to help us repent and turn to God’s love, the thing we need most. It was good for Paul to want to be free from the thorn in his flesh, but God did not give him this good thing so Paul would trust in the best thing – God’s grace (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). God wants us to pray like Psalm 84:10-11, which states:

For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

2. If You Are Going Through Something Hard That Is Actually Benefitting Your Character Development, This Is a Sign God Is Putting You Through a Test

The Bible uses the words “temptation,” “trials,” and “tests” in different ways:

• Temptations are something that God allows to happen to us but never causes to happen to us (James 1:13). Temptations come from Satan, the world, and our own sin nature.
• A trial is something hard in life that can be used in a temptation or in a test.
• A test is when God is giving us the opportunity to reap a reward later by being faithful during hard times now. As James 1:12 states, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”

A temptation is like a statement that says the lie, “Disobey God and something good will happen to you.” If you believe this statement and follow this lie, you end up sinning and hurting yourself.

A test, however, is like a question that is asking us, “Do you believe God will bless you if you obey him?” When we pass this test by following God through the hard times, we reap the reward – the main reward is that we are matured more and more into the image of Christ. As James 1:2-4 explains, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

3. If the Holy Spirit Is Causing You to Examine Your Own Faith, This Is a Sign God Is Putting You Through a Test

A test of faith is a spiritual trial that God allows his people to go through so they can be even more assured of their salvation. As 2 Corinthians 13:5-6 commands, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test.”

If you never test yourself, you will always have doubts about the genuineness of your own faith. When the Holy Spirit is truly in you, he will cause you to look inward at times to truly test your own faith. We should not be constantly questioning our own salvation, but at times it’s healthy to ask ourselves things like:

• “Why do I keep sinning like this? If I’m truly a Christian, what do I need to change to repent of this reoccurring sin?”
• “Why do I keep choosing this person over God? What do I need to do to put God first in my life?”
• “Why am I being so selfish with money? What is God asking me to do out of the generosity the Holy Spirit is producing in me?”

Proverbs 17:3 states, “The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts.” When the Holy Spirit is in you, he will lead you to test your own heart so you can be even more assured of your own salvation when you past the test by grace (Psalm 139:23-24).

Remember, what you trust in today will be tested tomorrow. Trust in God today so you will always pass the test tomorrow. As Jude 1:24-25 assures those who trust in God:

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”

For more on this topic, you may want to read my article, 3 Signs God Is Testing You.