TESTED BY FIRE

 

            I read this passage in my devotions this morning:  “You have made me see many troubles and calamities and will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again.  You will increase my greatness and comfort me again.  I will praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel” (Psalm 71:20-22).  This reminded me of a passage I just preached a couple of weeks ago and which has been with me ever since.  1 Peter 1:6-8, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  Though you have not seen him, you love him.  Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory…”

            It seems clear to me that American Christianity is very different from the Christianity I have observed in other places in the world.  Most of us have inherited a Christianity that teaches us that if we work hard and are faithful to the Lord then we will find success and peace and we will be spared from poverty and trials.  After all, that is generally the experience of Christians for a long in our country.  My brothers and sisters in India would not understand such thinking.  Neither would my dear brethren in Romania.  But when we encounter hardships and trials we wonder what in the world we did wrong and why God is allowing painful things to happen.  We miss the significance of what Peter wrote to the churches in northern Asia Minor.

            The testing nature of trials proves the authenticity of faith.  Peter compares the proving of our faith to the refining of gold through the fire.  He says our faith is more precious, of greater worth, than gold.  Our faith is the most precious possession we have!  Everything else we have is a stewardship.  Our bodies, our health, our possessions, our children, and our ministries are not really ours.  We are simply charged with the care of them for a little while.  Our faith is most precious because by it we have salvation.  Nothing else can obtain salvation for us!  And our faith is more precious than gold because, in the end, gold becomes valueless and it passes away with the rest of this creation.  But the main point here is the fact that our faith is proved genuine in the same way that gold is proved genuine and purified.  Our trials are not meant to harm us any more than purifying fire is meant to harm the gold!  The fire takes nothing of value away from the gold.  Rather, it increases its value!  In the same way, the fire of earthly trials takes nothing of value away from our faith.  Rather, it increases the value of our faith to us!  The trials prove that our faith is genuine and the trials purify our faith!  Have you ever considered what kinds of impurities the fires of trials burn away from our faith?  I can only give you a bit of personal testimony here.  The trials in my life have burned away wrong ideas about God and what he is like and how he works.  Trials have burned away weaknesses in my faith and doubts about God’s work in my life.  God has drawn me closer to himself through trials I have encountered.  And after years of trials and sorrows I stood up and realized that my faith was still there!  It had not collapsed under the suffering.  Instead, it grew stronger!