Are You Failing God’s Tests Time and Again?

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope … ” Romans 5:3-4 (ESV)

Do you ever feel like you fail God’s testing time and again? I’ve been serving the Lord for over 50 years, and there are some tests I can’t seem to pass. I have to continually fight against the gnawing sense that I’m God’s problem student.

I recently heard an amazing talk that helped me in this area. The speaker began with this fact: there are two types of tests–summative and formative.

Well, this was news to me. I mean, a test is a test, right? It’s either pass or fail. It’s how you weed out the idiots.

But let’s unpack those two words.

You see, summative tests are used to determine a pass/fail grade. They are given sometimes mid-way through your learning or immediately after, to see if you measure up. When you take the test, you are judged and either found to have passed (moving on to a higher level of education) or you fail with a low score (leading to rejection, a denial of privilege, held back, unable to perform, incomplete).

With summative tests, you can barely pass with a C- but at least you pass, right? Yes, but what this low grade does to us can still be humiliating. On the other hand, a higher score tends to make us prideful as we set ourselves above others.

Formative tests, however, do not use scores to determine your level of proficiency. Instead, formative tests are used to grow you. Much like an athletic coach spurs you on to improve your reaction time, muscle memory, or instruction of how the sport works.

With formative testing, you have already proven yourself to the coach because he chose you. You qualified and passed long ago. Now, it’s all about increasing your effectiveness. There is no daily evaluation to see if you still belong on the team. Formative testing is about increasing what has already gained an A+ score. Often, it’s about education, stamina, and prowess, while summative is more about evaluation and scoring–acceptance or rejection.

For most of my life, I saw tests from God as being summative. I never heard of formative testing. I encountered a test and assumed it was a pass or fail. So, I never knew my final score until I got tested in that area again and thought, I must have failed that last time–classic me! God is trying again to keep me in the game.

As a kid, when I got a failing report card, I knew my parents still loved me. So that was never a question with God, either. God is crazy about me and my failures never affect his love. Still, I walked around with the misconception that I was a D-average Christian and, therefore, a disappointment to the Kingdom. Surely, he must be tired of letting me re-take the test. But like a really hard video game, I can never seem to make it to the next level.

What an amazing revelation to hear God has no summative testing. All his tests are formative–never a pass/fail. Of course, God tests us over and over in the same areas! Not because we keep failing, but because he is helping our muscles grow bigger, our reaction time to be superior, and improve our wisdom of the game to outwit the opposition.

He’s not judging and scoring us like Mr Shudlick, my grumpy, middle-school math teacher. He is in our corner, spurring us on with a smile! Why? Because the testing of our faith produces steadfastness. So let us count it all joy when we meet various trials, for we know the testing of our faith isn’t to weed out the losers but to produce reliability and dedication so that we may be perfect and lack nothing. (see James 1:2-4).

Next time we are tempted to think we are working for a passing grade in our walk with Christ, let us read Psalms 34:19 and remember the righteous person is guaranteed many tests, trials, and afflictions, but the Lord delivers us from them all. If he delivers us from all of those, then that proves it’s not a pass/fail situation. He’s not looking to weed us out; he’s investing in us and building us up!

Welcome those tests, knowing he has your best interests in mind.