These are words that seemed to jump off the page as I was reading! Their timeless truth is still screaming loud and clear… Spiritual forces cannot work while we are trusting earthly forces! This is a statement made that carries great worth. It’s something I have painstakingly and most genuinely learned by having my hopes dashed time after time. A fact of life is that pain is sometimes the only way we can learn. And for some of us it’s not just the pain that teaches; We need more training, discipline, and repetitiveness. After all, it is in the time that we are forced to spend waiting… it’s in the isolation… in the inactivity… in the feelings of uselessness… that makes our faith the real deal. God isn’t joking when He says…
“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love.” 1 Peter 1: 6-7
“But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.” Job 23:10
“He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver;” Malachi 3:3
No, He’s not joking – not by a long shot. Don’t you love it when things in your life reflect the Word? I absolutely love that! In 1 Peter 1, verse 6 says that we should greatly rejoice even though we’ve been grieved with various trials. Every sound Christian has always something wherein he may greatly rejoice. His/her joy arises from things spiritual and heavenly, from his/her relation to God and to heaven. In verse 7, Peter goes on to say that afflictions are trials of faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire. The afflictions of serious Christians are designed for the trial of their faith. God’s design in afflicting his people is for their testing, not their destruction; their advantage, not their ruin.
In Matthew Henry’s commentary on 1 Peter 1, he gives a great explanation of trials of faith vs. gold that perishes. Let me share this with you:
“A tried faith is much more precious than tried gold. Here is a double comparison of faith and gold, and the trial of the one with the trial of the other. Gold is the most valuable, pure, useful, and durable, of all the metals; so is faith among the Christian virtues; it lasts till it brings the soul to heaven, and then it issues in the glorious fruition of God for ever. The trial of faith is much more precious than the trial of gold; in both there is a purification, a separation of the dross, and a discovery of the soundness and goodness of the things. Gold does not increase and multiply by trial in the fire, it rather grows less; but faith is established, improved, and multiplied, by the oppositions and afflictions that it meets with. Gold must perish at last—gold that perisheth; but faith never will (“But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” Luke 22: 32).