To help supplement my study, I've been using the Old Testament Student Manual from the Church's Institute program. The manual is full of fabulous information, quotes, maps, charts, and other resources. This morning as I studied about Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac I read a quote by George Q. Cannon that increased my understand of why God tests us.
President Cannon (1827-1901), a former counselor in the First Presidency, said:
"Why did the Lord ask such things of Abraham? Because, knowing what his future would be and that he would be the father of an innumerable posterity, he was determined to test him. God did not do this for His own sake for He knew by His foreknowledge what Abraham would do; but the purpose was to impress upon Abraham a lesson and to enable him to attain unto knowledge [what] he could not obtain in any other way. This is why God tries all of us. It is not for His own knowledge for He knows all things beforehand. He knows all your lives and everything you will do. But He tries us for our own good that we may know ourselves; for it is most important that a man should know himself" (Gospel Truth, 1:113). Quoted in Chapter 6: Abraham- A Model of Faith and Righteousness.The manual then references Genesis 18:17-19, to see God's knowledge of Abraham's righteousness before He tested him. Then we're asked the following question, "What does His foreknowledge of Abraham have to do with His knowledge of you?"
God tests us so that we will come to know ourselves: our strengths, abilities, weaknesses, etc. He already knows us- completely. God knows what we will do, but we do not. It is essential to our eternal salvation that we come to know our characters, and develop them, through life's tests, temptations, and challenges, and God has given us the agency to choose the things we think, say, and do.
Learn how to have faith during trials, and overcome addictions and destructive habits, or see these other resources for overcoming adversity.
Why Does the Lord Test Us? originally appeared on About.com Latter-day Saints on Saturday, December 19th, 2009 at 11:30:26.
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