Are you being troubled and grieved by trials that sadden you and make you weep? God is not out to get you, He loves you! Trials are something you are going THROUGH not getting stuck IN. God will not leave you there forever, He will deliver you.
The Apostle Peter, one of Jesus’ key leaders wrote this.
“So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world” 1 Peter 1:6–7 (NLT)
Trails test the reality of your faith. They reveal the impure things of your that that must be removed so you can have a pure faith, solid, secure, and unwavering. Like gold heated to the melting point 1,948 degrees Fahrenheit, the impurities rise quickly to the surface at that heat level. What is rising to the surface in your trial? Fear, anxiety, worry, and anger all seem to bubble up to the surface first.
Our Refiner, King Jesus, speaks to us in our trials when these things rise to the surface. He helps us recognize them, pull them away and slowly learn to trust Him more and more in our trials. He keeps purifying us in these trials so our faith would reflect the faith of Jesus Himself.
Imagine the temptation of Jesus to dive into fear, anxiety, worry, and anger at the prospect of being betrayed, beaten and going to the cross for humanity who had rejected Him. The night before His crucifixion, He was sweating great drops of blood, crying out to God the Father for some other way, but yielding fully to the Father’s will, saying “Not my will but Thine be done.” He was to face a death like no other man, taking the punishment for all the sins of all humanity upon Himself. Jesus struggled through this trial and got his eyes firmly fixed on the Resurrection that the Father had promised and the place of honor at the right hand of God that was His when He ascended.
He went through the betrayal and the crucifixion as no other man. His eyes were on the promise of God to Him and not on the pain and trouble He was to face. He went through it powerfully, magnificently, and perfectly. He went through it with peace and love, not anger and anxiety. He went through it with an unwavering trust in the Father’s love for Him not a fear that God was out to get Him. He knew the Father was going to deliver Him. His spirit and mind were settled upon following the Father’s and doing things God’s way. This is why the Word of God calls Jesus, the Author our Faith. He wrote the manual on faith and exemplified how we should live by faith.
So remember, when the heat is turned up in your life, and you are being grieved by various trials, that the ugliness of fear, anxiety/worry, and anger are being scraped away from your soul. Peace, love, joy, and an unwavering trust in God is being built in your life and the ugliness is being removed.
How do you know there is an end to these trials? The Goldsmith would stand at the furnace clearing off the impurities that rise to the surface. He knew he was finished purifying the gold when He could see the perfect reflection of His face in the pure gold!
So it is in our lives, when we face fiery trials. We are NOT being punished, but God is transforming us into His beautiful perfect reflection.
Trials are for your beautiful transformation into Christlikeness. Keep trusting God through your trials and know that He will deliver you through them! Sit down today and read quietly 1 Peter 1 and let God’s word soak in your life. Rest in His love for you. Tell Him everything that is bothering you. Thank Him for changing you and that He is going to deliver you through this troubling time.
Don’t give up!
Bill Stevens