Does God test us or want us to be tested?

[xdisciplex]

I don't understand this.
The bible says somewhere that God doesn't tempt us, right?
But I heard a pastor say that God wants us to be tested in order to make us trust him more. But how can God say he doesn't tempt us and then he tests us?
I mean why did God send Jesus into the wilderness? Did he want him to be tempted? But if he wanted him to be tempted then why does the bible say God doesn't test us? This looks as if God uses Satan to carry out things which he wants to do but which he doesn't want to do himself and then Satan has to do it because he's the bad guy. This looks as if God uses Satan like a tool.

 

[DQuixote]

You are confusing temptation and testing. God tempts no one. James 1:13ff.

 

[Helen]

"Testing" is not what you are thinking of as a student. It is more along the lines of checking a metal to determine its purity.

It shows where the impurities and weaknesses are, and then the jeweler or whomever is working with the metal refines it again.

And that is what the Holy Spirit does with us. We are being checked constantly, not because God doesn't know where our weaknesses are, but because He wants us to know. That way we understand the discipline, the refinement process, better and will have more patience with it and, hopefully, respond well.

 

[Marcia]

Tempting is luring someone to do evil - making evil inviting. Satan does that.

Testing is refining - the Lord does this to refine us and get us so that we depend more on and trust more in Him. The Lord may allow us to be in a difficult circumstance in order to test us, for example.