A proving ground is a place where guns are tested. When a bullet is fired, the barrel of the gun acts temporarily as a pressure chamber. If there are defects in the construction of the gun, then this pressure chamber will fail and the gun will misfire or even blow up. Guns are proofed by using special proofing rounds that subject the gun to higher levels of pressure than they are normally expected to undergo. If they can withstand this greater level of pressure, then they can be trusted to be used in the field. The original word for sin used in the bible was an archery term for missing the mark or missing the target. Missing the target could be a problem with the aim, or a problem with the bow, or, in more modern times, the gun. Missing the target because we are not aiming properly is something that we each have to work on. If we are careless in our stance or we are just deliberately choosing to shoot at something other than the target, then these have less to do with how good or poor of a marksman we are, and much more to do with poor choices and bad judgment on our part. But what about when we are doing everything right and our aim is perfect, but the gun we are using misfires? We each have our own weaknesses, flaws and defects. We have to find out if those flaws are going to prevent us from hitting our target. God gives us proofing rounds - rounds that are much larger and more stressful than we are used to dealing with - because He needs to help us discover for ourselves if the gun we’re using to hit the target is going to misfire or not when the situation really heats up. If we can make it through these seemingly impossible situations without blowing up, then we know that we can trust our guns and any weaknesses we have will not get in the way of hitting the mark as long as we keep ourselves aimed in the right direction. And if we do misfire? The important thing to remember in this metaphor is that we are the marksman, not the gun. We are not our weaknesses and flaws. If we have a broken heart, then we need to have the humility to sacrifice this broken heart and hand it over to our Savior Jesus Christ. And He’ll give us a new one. And if that one fails the proofing rounds, then we just need to keep going back until we get one that is strong enough to pass the test. We can have the most perfect aim in the world, but we are still not going to hit the target if our gun misfires. And we’re not going to know if we’ve got a good gun unless we take it to the proving grounds.
