Inro Video: Akeelah and the Bee

The Pop Quiz- Influencers experience tests as they mature. These tests range from motive checks to authority tests, to integrity checks. They reveal our potential and maturity and are a pathway to progress.

Tests are no fun, but they are

. They are measuring sticks, checkpoints, places to evaluate how you are progressing.

The tests we face in life are no different to our lives of faith. They are not something we seek out, but they are

to grow in our faith and often come before a step forward can be taken.

What if you could start to change your thinking about test and trials? As less of a punishment and more of an opportunity. Less of a Tombstone and more of a

James 1:12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

Abraham - Testing as Opportunity Genesis 22:1-19 (ESV)

What do I do when the right thing to do is the hard thing to do? When feel like God is asking you to give up something your heart really loves? When it is an otherwise good thing? Your job, a relationship, a comfort of some sort.

What is at the heart of Abraham’s and all of our testing (whatever it is you are facing)?

Will I trust in God? is he trustworthy?

Hebrews 11:17-19 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

After the wrestling match that evening, Abraham concluded: God Will Provide. The Decision had been made in his heart and when the test came, the test was won. And he came out

in the process.

What if we looked not just to the trial, but through it to the opportunity?

1 Peter 1:3-7 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

If we don’t learn to take this perspective, tough times and Pop Quizzes will only produce frustration and “why me” attitudes. How do we do this: Follow our leader. J_esus_

When the Pop Quiz hits, we pass the test when we can say, in the midst of a test, “God will provide”.