The Indispensable Role of Tests in the Christian Life

Tests. Ugh. Sometimes I wish I had finished with them when I graduated from school. No more homework. No more tests. Sounds great right? Unless there is more to it than that when it comes to the spiritual life.

Recently I re-read some words from The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard that helped me rethink this approach again:

“First we must accept the circumstances we constantly find ourselves in as a place of God’s kingdom and blessing. God has yet to bless anyone except where they actually are, and if we faithlessly discard situation after situation, moment after moment, as not being “right,” we will simply have no place to receive his kingdom into our life. For those situations and moments are our life.”

These tests and situations are opportunities. Though well stated, Willard did not come up with this idea. The brother of Jesus did:

“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.” – James 1:2-4 (NASB)

Comfort is not God’s goal for my life–wow that is even painful to type! Being a disciple means doing homework and taking tests–not to earn God’s favor or merit his grace, but to grow. Growth is not comfortable but it is good, necessary, and what we were made for. This is another reason why theology matters.

God help me receive todays’s circumstances–as husband, father, friend, co-worker–as an opportunity to grow. Help me pass the test for your glory and my ultimate benefit. Help change my perspective.

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How have you experienced receiving circumstances as opportunities in your life? Share how God has met you in them below in the comments section to encourage one another.

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Dallas Willard on the Ruined Soul and How Not to Live

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Recently Dallas Willard went to be with His Lord. I miss him already. Here is just one of the many sobering and insightful passages from his writing (Renovation of the Heart).

Thus no one chooses in the abstract to go to hell or even to be the kind of person who belongs there. But their orientation toward self leads them to become the kind of person for whom away-from-God is the only place for which they are suited. It is a place they would, in the end, choose for themselves, rather than come to humble themselves before God and accept who he is. Whether or not God’s will is infinitely flexible, the human will is not. There are limits beyond which it cannot bend back, cannot turn or repent. One should seriously inquire if to live in a world permeated with God and the knowledge of God is something they themselves truly desire. If not, they can be assured that God will excuse them from his presence. They will find their place in the “outer darkness” of which Jesus spoke. But the fundamental fact about them will not be that they are there, but that they have become people so locked into their own self-worship and denial of God that they cannot want God… We should be very sure that the ruined soul is not one who has missed a few more or less important theological points and will flunk a theological examination at the end of life. Hell is not an “oops!” or a slip. One does not miss heaven by a hair, but by constant effort to avoid and escape God. “Outer darkness” is for one who, everything said, wants it, whose entire orientation has slowly and firmly set itself against God and therefore against how the universe actually is. It is for those who are disastrously in error about their own life and their place before God and man.—Dallas Willard

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How We Change Spiritually: Vision, Intention, & Means

Here is a great summary of Dallas Willard’s V.I.M. Pattern (cf. Rom. 12:2; Phil. 4:8; Col. 3:1-3; Ps. 16:8-11):

“Nourishing our mind with good and godly ideas, images, information, and the ability to think creates our vision…From these, we intend to be formed so that God is a constant presence in our mind, crowding out false ideas, destructive images, misinformation about God, and crooked beliefs. As for means, certain tried and true disciplines aid us in the transformation of our thought life toward the mind of Christ. We cannot transform our ideas, images, information, or thought processes into Christlikeness by direct effort, but we can adopt certain practices that indirectly have that effect.”—Dallas Willard

The Problem of Spiritual Transformation

“In sum, the problem of spiritual transformation (really, of the normal lack thereof) among those who identify as Christians today is not that it is impossible, or that effectual means to it are not available. The problem is that spiritual transformation into Christlikeness is not intended. People do not see it and its value, and decide to carry through with it. They do not decide to do the things Jesus did and said. And this in turn is, today, largely due to the fact that they have not been given a vision of life in God’s kingdom, within which such a decision and intention would make sense. The ‘gospel’ they have heard did not bring that vision.”–Dallas Willard