The crises that test men are always small. A man is never revealed when he is prepared for the occasion of examination. We are never really manifested if we have been notified beforehand that we are going to be examined. It is true in every area of life, that the test announced and prepared for, sometimes by cramming, is often at fault, when we want to know what a man is or knows. God never announces his examinations.
If God were to announce to us tonight that tomorrow at twelve o’clock he would meet us in order to find out what we were in character, what preparations there would be between now and twelve o’clock tomorrow. How careful we would be to appear at our very best, and the result would be false. What you are shows when you do not know anyone is likely to be watching you critically.
In the small things, in the little details, in the commonplaceness of life, character shines out. I never try to find out what a preacher is when he is preaching. It is when he is in his home and when he thinks there is no one there to critically watch him, that is the time to find out what he is really like.
I never want to find out what a deacon is like in the deacons’ meeting. Sometimes you do, but that’s not the best time. The time to find that out is on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, during the week. I do not want to know what your character is when you are singing. I want to find out what your character is when something goes wrong, some little commonplace problem with your work at home. When you are carried along by the stream of the commonplace, then your character is revealed.
-G. Campbell Morgan
The Fight of Faith 