Try Me

'Try me' is usually fighting words. It’s a challenge issued with the assurance that you’re about to make a believer out of someone who’s made the serious error of underestimating you…usually. Fact is, often times in situations of an altercation, it’s not a bad idea to throw an agitated yet confident “Try me!” out there just to see if it can avert an escalation of the confrontation. That’s called bluffing.

See, there’s this thing called ‘easy believism’. It’s a bluff. It’s the idea that once you’ve thrown out an agitated yet confident “Save me!”, then all the work is done. There’s no lasting conviction and no lasting commitment.

As true as God’s word is where in Romans 10:9-10 it talks about the relationship between confession and salvation, that’s simply where it all starts. Confession is evidence of a conviction and commitment is where we ought to be serious about becoming more than mouthing the words.
A show of hands: How many of us out there would volunteer to stand before God and say “Try me!” – Yeah… seems crazy doesn’t it? Of course not in a confrontational way but in a sincere request to have God “do His thing” to check our hearts and the strength of our commitment. If we’re honest, we don’t really want that. We’d rather opt for the quiet humility of peace and prayer and stay off of God’s radar…but is this right?
Firstly, God is not that kind of God – He’s a try me God as well as a trying God. He encourages us to try and test Him, and He tries and tests His people. There’s no way around it and surely no way out of it.

Here’s The Word:

Psalm 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:

Psalm 26:2 Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.

Lamentations 3:40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.

Jeremiah 17:10 I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

The right answer and the right attitude is to commit and submit. Isn’t it right for God to prove what He’s making? If you’re repairing or replacing the railing on a raised deck or better yet, the brakes on your car, isn’t it right for you to shake things or repeatedly mash that peddle to make sure that things are going to work like they’re supposed to? Of course it is. Now just think about what God is making: A gift for His Son. A bride, spotless and pure. How much more shaking and mashing are required to be confident that this gift will be all that it’s supposed to be?

Daniel 11:35 And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.

Zechariah 13:9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.

Now you have to ask yourself, are you more concerned with your comfort than with Christ’s Glory? Are you more committed to giving yourself to becoming that thing that God is well pleased to present to His Son? Can you step out and say “Try me, Lord, have thine own way” ….or are you bluffing?
Yes, it goes without saying – It’s easier said than done, BUT it’s SO worth doing that saying it just isn’t enough. We don’t DO easy believism.
In closing, allow me to clarify this one thing; chastising and testing are not the same thing but in the Hands of a loving Father, both produce good - in us, for His pleasure. We need to learn to see and appreciate the process of sanctification and not shrink away from God’s testing. 'Try me' doesn't have to be fighting words, they can be faith-ing words.

James 1:3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. (which is part of the fruit of The Spirit)

In Him,
Cros