A couple of weeks ago, my wife underwent a heart stress test. Her former cardiologist left town, so her new doctor wanted a baseline test as he assumed her care. All went well, and, even though there is permanent damage from her heart attack twenty years ago, her heart is working as it should.

(About that new doctor; are they recruiting cardiologists right out of high school now? He looks so young.)

I remember the stress test I had many years ago. They put me on a treadmill and kept on increasing the speed and elevation until I about passed out. Then they tossed me up onto a table where a creepy scanner rotated around my body to record my hearts’ performance. I’m convinced that the rule for a stress test is: “Let’s push his body to the limit. If he doesn’t have a heart attack and die, he’s OK.”

God periodically runs stress tests on His loved ones. He will create or allow circumstances and situations that test our love for Him and the health of our faith. Sometimes the challenge comes from things that happen directly to us as individuals, other times they happen to people we love. We get sick or injured, lose a job, lose a friend, or our finances may suffer. Cancer may strike a loved one (Two of mine). An accident happens and you get a call in the middle of the night. (This too.) Or you might face a moral crisis; a temptation that is almost too much to resist.

A gut-wrenching stress test is described to us in the Bible; the book of Job. In one day he loses his children, his flocks, and his servants. Job’s response? He tore his clothes, shaved his head, and worshiped God. Another day, and his health was ruined. He was covered in boils, sitting in ashes, and listening to his wife give him bad advice: “You should just curse God and die!”. Job mourned. He lamented. He poured out his heart to his friends who gave him more bad advice. He poured out his heart to God. But he never lost faith.

I cannot understand why some people suffer more than others. That’s God’s business, not mine. But everyone who has put their hope and trust in God’s Messiah will have that faith tested. When the crisis comes, be sure that God is right there in the midst of it. He is not only monitoring your heart; He is backing it up with His own strength. Even if the suffering seems prolonged; even if the suffering is not resolved in this life; rest assured that nothing can snatch you out of the grasp of your all-loving, all-powerful God. You will emerge stronger in your faith and assurance. And when life here on earth is over and you go home, you will hear, “Well done!”

Isaiah 48:10 (ESV) Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.