It is absence that tries fidelity. -Mrs J Hunter

Not only in marriage, but also in a Christian’s walk with God is this saying true. And I believe that God wants to try every single Christian’s fidelity: to see if our faith is genuine, and to help us grow and depend on Him.

I believe that a Christian’s life frequently proceeds much life Israel’s journey out of Israel. (I’ve experienced this in my own life as well.) Here are the key events:

1. Living in bondage to sin (as Israel was in bondage to Egyptians)
2. Redeemed and set free (as Israel was led out through the Red Sea
3. Shown a foretaste of God’s power (as Israel saw God’s plagues upon Egypt)
4. With the foundation of faith laid, God tries our faith (in the same way that He let Israel get very hungry and thirsty before He gave them water and manna; and how He let Moses, their spokesman and leader, disappear on a mountaintop for 40 days, supposing him to be dead)
5. If we endure, and our faith is proven, we break through to abundant life and blessing (as Israel finally entered the promised land, and fed off the fat of the land instead of the manna they once ate)

And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live. -Deuteronomy 8:3

• Hungry and Thirsty for God
• Deception of Forgetfulness
• Advice for the Midst of Life’s Storms
• Manna in the Desert
• The Future: One Day at a Time

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Godly Sayings by Dean