Can You Pass God's Test?

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Pastor James May

CAN YOU PASS GOD’S TEST?

Psalms 26:1-12

David was in exile and being pursued by King Saul. Even though David knew that he was to be next King of Israel, he would not lift his hand against Saul. Saul had already been rejected by God and his reign was coming to an end but, in David’s eyes, as long as God allowed Saul to reign, he was still God’s chosen man and David would not fight against God’s anointed. David had integrity. Integrity meant that David would be as steady as a rock in his obedience to God whether circumstances where in his favor or not.

Even though David was a man who walked after God and a man who Paul refers to in

Acts 13:22 “…David the son of Jesse, a man after mine (God’s) own heart, which shall fulfill all my will. (I added “God’s”, yet the reference is plain), David was not perfect in all his ways, as we know from the studies of his great sin and failures.

Yet, even in all of his sin, David is still a man of integrity! Integrity doesn’t mean that we will never make mistakes or stray from our mission to serve the Lord. It does mean that our ultimate goal and our final decisions always lead us back to the same place, a place where we will follow the Lord.

David, now in exile and running from Saul, writes this Psalm to God, asking God to put his heart to the test.

HOW MANY OF US REALLY WANT GOD TO TEST OUR LOYALTY, LOVE, COMMITMENT AND INTEGRITY TO HIM? I don’t know about you but it is a fearful thing to know that God will test us by examining the motives and integrity of my heart. I can only pray and trust that I could pass that test! I can only hope and pray that all of you would pass it too.

ILLUSTRATION:

God does not grade on a curve as many of our present day teachers do. His tests are absolute with only one answer that will be right. Too many of our youth today are graduating from high schools across America without the basic knowledge and skills to even get a mediocre job. Teachers who grade on a curve actually cause the standard of excellence and integrity to be lowered until no one is required to learn much of anything. It is as though we are measuring ourselves against ourselves and we decide that, since we are as good or perhaps a little better than we were last year, we are doing well. What a deceptive practice that is.

I can remember my days in school and college when it seems that very few would pass a certain test in mathematics or chemistry and the teacher or professor would decide to grade on a curve. That would just seem to make my day. (It was always in my favor when grading on a curve was done because “I was always at the “top of the curve.”) No, I need to guard my own integrity and say that I really wasn’t always at the top, in fact, there were a few times when, if it had not been for the curving of grades, I would have failed instead of passing by the skin of my teeth, so to speak.

The real questions that must be asked are these! When do we learn the most? When are we challenged to be the best that God intends for us to be? How can we ever hope to become a man or woman of integrity?

We learn the most and are challenged to change only when we are held to the highest of standards without compromise! THAT’S THE WAY THAT GOD’S TESTS WILL GO!

With God, it’s either right or wrong and it’s never multiple choice or fill in the blanks!

Vs 1-2, “Judge me, O LORD; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the LORD; therefore I shall not slide. Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.”