For the last month or so, we have been having trouble posting this blog onto social media. Every so often, WordPress, our platform for writing all these articles, gets upgraded and, of course, there are changes to social media platforms. To be perfectly transparent about it, I’m not a very strong technical person… but we do have great folks who help us in this area.
The point is that many people subscribe to get our twice weekly offerings in their inbox each Sunday and Thursday evening. We are now upwards of 1760 posts published in the last 11 years or so. But there are others who enjoy reading on social media and for the past five weeks or so, we have been updating our technology to accommodate the changes that are being made across so many platforms.
Suffice it to say that it has been frustrating to try and figure out all the nuances of what has to work seamlessly to have everything publish correctly. But we finally think we have this issue solved. Of course, that meant that there was a tremendous amount of angst over trials and tests to see what would work. The culmination of all this came to pass last week when it was necessary for our technology folks to send out a number of test posts to see if they were properly delivered.
Even though they were promptly deleted, a number of you contacted me to see if we had been hacked, or why we were sending out these test articles. To be sure, we have NOT been hacked. In fact, I think that we have finally solved the riddle and are back on track. Thank you for understanding. And I want to publicly acknowledge the efforts of Angela and her tech gurus who have worked so hard to make all this come together.
But all this testing does tie in to the Scripture! That’s because from time to time God puts each of us to the test – or asks us to test Him. He doesn’t want us to fail – He wants to train us and mold us to be selfless and trusting in Him. God delights in us when we overcome obstacles and remain steadfast with Him.. But from time to time we question whether we are off course or why we are being tested… Is it God – or not?
For sure, God even lets us know from time to time when He is inviting us to test Him. The most famous of these times is with the subject of money and providing funds for kingdom work. Our verse for tonight highlights an area in the Old Testament where God challenges us. Malachi, the prophet who has the distinction of having written the last book in the Old Testament tells us, in Malachi 3:10, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”
God invites us to test Him and trust Him to bless us when we are obedient and provide a portion of what we have been blessed with for kingdom work. My encouragement this evening is that God really wishes for us to test Him and see that He can be trusted. My prayer is that we will endeavor to pass the test and remain steadfast in our resolve to advance the kingdom of God here on earth. God owns everything anyway – its not unrealistic for Him to request a portion of our blessing be returned to His work. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…