The testing of steel’s properties often begins with checking hardness. This is measured by pressing a diamond pyramid or a hard steel ball into the steel at a specific load.
There is a test room at the steel mill. Steel is tested to the limit and marked with figures that shows it's breaking point. Some pieces are twisted until they break and its strength is marked on it. Some steel is stretched to their breaking point and their tensile strength is recorded.
The mill test representative knows just what each piece of steel can withstand under pressure. They know which piece should be used for a structure of a building or bridge. It is known because of the tests that are done in the testing room.
God knows and understands all of His children. He created us and He knows us better than we know ourselves. God doesn’t want us to be fragile and easily broken like glass. He wants us to be a tough piece of steel.
God uses our trials to promote spiritual growth and maturity. In Romans 4:16-17, Paul use Abraham as an illustration and Paul identifies him as the “father of faith”. When we examines his life, we see how God took him from one test to another test.
God wants us to mature in every area of our life, but maturity doesn’t come easily. There can be no growth without testing, and there can be no testing without some difficulties.
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (James 1:2-4).
Growth is hard and it stretches us until it hurts. God wants us to be like a rock that can stand the fiercest storm. He doesn’t want us to be like sand, that every time the wind blows, we scatter and run. To make us just the way He wants us, He must bring us into His testing room of suffering.
Just like the steel is tested, we are tested to our limits. The steel is twisted to its breaking point, so we are too. The steel is stretched to its breaking point and so are we. And the steel is compressed to its breaking point and so are we too. God knows our breaking point and just when we are about to break, it stops and the trial is over.
God doesn’t test us because He doesn’t know how strong we are. God tests us because WE don’t know how strong we really are. When our faith is being tested, we know we must be strong. We must praise God in every situation and sometimes, that is not easy to do. God is working it out for us. There is nothing too hard for our God.
Many of us have so many stories to share about our own experiences from the “testing room”. In telling our stories, we will talk about the pain, but we can always talk about how God brought us over.
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