I have good news for you today: God wants to promote you! He wants you to grow, to increase, to move forward so you can get to the next level in your life. That’s totally His plan for you.

How is that going to happen?

Well, here’s the deal: God’s method of promotion is, and always has been, faithfulness. And let’s face it, that’s on us. We decide how faithful we are.

How bad do you want the next level? How far do you want to go? Ummm…. how faithful do you want to be?

God’s looking for people who can be trusted to stick with it through hard times, with a humble, teachable attitude. He’s looking for people who will get the job done and not quit in the middle of it. More than talent, charisma, or good looks, God is looking for faithfulness.

So if you’ve been seeking God about a certain direction or decision and you just aren’t getting a definite answer, go ahead and be faithful where you are until you know for sure. Here’s how:

Put your hand to something – in your local church or in service to God or on your job or even in your home – and do it with all your heart. Stay with it! Be faithful on your job and with your friends and family. Let God see your faithfulness. He isn’t going to promote lazy, selfish, entitled people.

Matthew 25:23 says that when you are faithful in small things, God will make you ruler over bigger things. You can’t expect Him to promote you to the next level in your life until you’ve proved yourself at level you’re on now.

So, check up on yourself:

• Have you done what He’s asked you to do?
• Have you proven yourself in your current season?
• Have you done it all with a good attitude?

If not, there’s a chance He’ll leave you right there until you’ve gotten this truth and lived it. Ouch! I know it!

Pass the Test

See, God has every right to test you. He did it with Abraham, the original covenant man. In Genesis 22:1 the Bible says, “Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham.”

God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. And to his credit, Abraham was completely willing to do it, believing God’s Word so much that he concluded “God was able to raise [Isaac] up, even from the dead…” (Heb. 11:19).

Most of us don’t like to hear about being tested. But you might need to change the way you think about it.

Really, a test is not a plot and conspiracy against you. A test is to prove what you know, to see if you’re ready for the next level. Like when your math teacher gave you a test from chapter four to see if you could do the equations, because if you couldn’t then you weren’t ready yet for chapter five!

God loves you. He isn’t going to throw you into a new level that you’re not ready for. And He needs to find out if you’ll be faithful. How does He do that? You guessed it: He tests you. He wants to see what’s in you, to see if you’re ready for the next thing and if you’ll stick with it. Remember, He’s looking for faithfulness.

So my advice is, pass your test! Instead of feeling sorry for yourself when going through a test, have a good attitude like Abraham had.

Put your shoulders back, set your face like flint, and say, “Lord, help me pass my test!” Be faithful right where you are, then you’ll be in position for God to lead you to the next level.