Opportunity to Demonstrate Your Potential and Maturity

There is a danger that people go to church every Sunday only to get a temporary surge of motivation. They are motivated, but when Monday comes, they forget what they learned just twenty-four hours prior. They think that they are changed just by listening to the sermon. The fact of the matter is that you will not leave the church changed. Change will only take place if you apply what you have learned.

God wants you to be doers of the Word, and when you implement what God says, change and promotion will come. In other words, promotion and change is up to you. When you come to church and listen to a preaching, you are only gathering information. You leave the church every Sunday with the potential for change. “A wise man has great power, and a man of knowledge increases strength.” (Prov.24:5)

When you apply that knowledge, you will gain wisdom. However, in life there are many tests that we all must go through. We have the tendency to be distracted by them or may even be discouraged and lose our focus. As much as we don’t like to go through testing, its purpose is good. It is an opportunity to demonstrate our potential and maturity. The end result of the test is good for us.

“And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.” (Deut.8:2-3)

Tests will reveal your inward poverty, your plateau, or your progress. Let’s pick anger as an example. If you know that you have anger and you continue to get angrier and in a quicker way, the test reveals your inward poverty. If you still struggle with the same thing you struggled with a year ago, then you are stagnant. But a test can also reveal your progress. When things that used to depress you no longer depresses you or you extend forgiveness and demonstrate love — you are making progress.

You may struggle in different areas of your life: addiction, drugs, alcohol, sexual sin, pornography, or with any other thing - choose today as the beginning of your change by submitting yourself to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to lead you. You cannot do it with your own strength. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Learn from David. He invited God to test him, “Test me, O LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind.” (Ps.26:2); “You have tested my heart;?You have visited me in the night; You have tried me and have found nothing; I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.” (Ps.17:3)