Have you ever felt like you were a set of tires on an 18 wheeler? Your going  down a steep mountain, with the brakes burning to keep from going over the side of the cliffs on either side of you. You are precariously close as you round each curve and trying with all your “tire” might, you grip just enough to arrive safely at your destination. Then you find out that this was a predestined road test, designed to give you courage and confidence for all of your upcoming journeys!

Basically every saint in the Bible, both Old and New Testament, have experienced the same “road” tests as you are. Listen to the Psalmist. “Bless our God, O people’s! Give Him a thunderous welcome! Didn’t he set us on the road of life? Didn’t he keep us out of the ditch? He trained (the word ‘trained’ literally means to be repaired and prepared) us first, passed us like silver through refining fires, Brought us into hardscrabble county, pushed us to our very limit. Road-tested us inside and out, took us to hell and back; (if you have to go through hell, I like the “and back” part) Finally he brought us to this well-watered place.” Psalm 66: 8-12, The Message, parentheses added.

Ditches, refining fires, hardscrabble country, pushed to the very limit,  road-tested (inside and out), to hell and back: any of this ringing true to your experience? And you thought as a christian; you know, one of God’s children, that you were exempted from these kinds of “road-tests”. Oops! But wait; there is a wonderful purpose and outcome for all of the above. All of these difficult parts of the trip make everything else in the journey to Christ-likeness much sweeter and valuable.

You see, the Psalmist had a very important key for surviving road-tests. No matter what was happening, prioritizing praise and worship and having a deep knowing that God is in control of each and every detail, enabled a holy endurance. He and every other saint in history had a clear view, through the eyes of faith, that there is always a well-watered place for us at all times. And that place is his very presence! In the midst of the trials and tests, we can whisper the name above all names; Jesus, and immediately we are in the well-watered place. Be nurtured today, in the midst of the training, by “the well watered place” of his presence.

In the grip of His presence! Ron Ross