If you live long enough on this fallen earth, you will realize heart break, sadness, and terrible things from time to time. It is a continuance of the darkness resulting from the fall of Adam and Eve, when the whole world fell into sin. Christians are not exempt from human hardship, even though Joel Osteen stands in front of his pulpit each week and relays the opposite with Satan, the serpent from the Garden, cheering it on.

So when your life shatters, the question is who are you going to turn to. Is it the Almighty God who will see you through or will it be the world and its fallen messages. I believe these hardships are a definite test of our faith. We saw this occur with Job, one of the oldest books in the Bible.

Satan thought Job would crack under the pressure, that his faith was self generated and that he would rid himself of God once he experienced absolute hardship and all his earthly possessions were taken away. God took Satan up on his prediction and allowed Satan to work on Job. But Job didn’t crack up. He definitely questioned things, but did not lose his faith that God had granted despite losing his family, his health, his estate in a very short period of time.

Job was tested, he passed that test of faith. Why? Because it was God who granted him that endurance. Job turned to God with his questions and to get answers, although his friends thought they had these answers. Satan’s futile hope was that Job would listen only to his friends and dismiss God. He was wrong, and will always be wrong with a child of God, but it doesn’t mean he will continue to try.

If you are a child of God, the examination of your faith comes when your life shatters. Sure, it is easy to have faith when things are great in your life, but when the bottom drops out, discernment WILL come to show whether you were just play acting or you clearly had genuine faith granted from God. Are you immediately turning to God, or are you dismissing Him for the world when those difficult trying times show themselves.

One example comes to mind. A few years ago I recall a woman claiming to be a Christian, a child of God, and any questioning of her faith would be met with a stern rebuke. Her family then experienced some hardship, so I asked her to turn to God for the answers. She replied “don’t give me that crap, (other profane expletives), we need to figure this out”. She failed the test of faith right then and there, the mask came off. I had known this beforehand by her lack of repentance, but if there was a time when there was a clear and undeniable example, this was it. It was when her life was shattered. And it wasn’t like she regretted reading me the riot act later on either for telling her to turn to God.

When your life shatters, turn to God in FAITH! Trust in Him alone. Nothing is impossible with Him. And more importantly pray to God that you PASS that test of faith when the time comes!