“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this," Says the Lord of hosts, "If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.” Malachi 3:10(emphasis added)

“Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord; and the God who answers by fire, He is God." So all the people answered and said, "It is well spoken."1 Kings 18:24 (Elijah on Mt. Carmel)

“Then Gideon said to God, "Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew." And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground.” Judges 6:39-40

“God only dwells in the church today, it is not necessary to take Him with us daily.”  “I do not need the blessing of God in my life, my life is running smoothly and I have everything I need.”

I doubt anyone would say these words above or even think them in these exact words.  Yet we need to look to see if we ever live our lives with this attitude.  Life is full of challenges, (Cancer, rebellious kids, obnoxious people, short deadlines, depressed economies, injuries, and so on,) but we often neglect our greatest resource in times of trouble.  God is sovereign over every situation, and owns all the resources we need for any circumstance.  He invites us to pray/call on Him in our weakest moments so that we can see his deliverance.  Challenges are part of the Christian life.  Sometimes we must endure challenges to build our faith, or we must step into the unknown to serve him.  His calling on our lives is usually a challenge to our natural abilities, so that He can show his strength.  After all, His strength is perfected in our weakness.

God also is challenged in the scriptures.  He invites us in Malachi to test him with our offerings, to see that He will not “pour out blessings.”  Gideon was allowed to test God before he followed God’s direction (something we generally do not get to do) and God proved faithful.  And of course in the showdown on Mt. Carmel, God put an exclamation mark on his superiority to the idols.  I believe that God still wants to be tested today with believers faithful to God-sized plans.  Can we reach 10 new believers this year? How about launching a new ministry? Starting a new church?  What is God asking us to step out and trust him with?