The preciousness of the trial of our faith

“Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:6-7

[i]Trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth…[/i]

This is something of great importance to our Father. It is important to Him that His children have faith in Him. He will take them through fiery trials to perfect it for His praise and honor. He is glorified in the perfect trust and confidence of His children. To have faith in something is to signify that it is trustworthy. Unbounded faith in God testifies to His worthiness of such trust.

What may seem to be a difficulty or annoyance ought to be turned around as an opportunity of trust and dependence in Him. It is good indeed if the props are removed if it forces me to lean on Him. Such seasons of trials ought to be glorious times of rejoicing that our Father is going to such pains to perfect our faith in Him!

[i]“Unto you therefore which believe he is precious…” 1 Peter 2:7[/i]
Even as our faith is precious to Him so He is precious to us through our faith in Him. Although this book was not originally written with chapter and verse divisions it is interesting to not how chapter one, verse seven, and chapter two, verse seven, both talk about faith and what is precious.

At the same time that I was meditating on these thoughts I read this by Oswald Chambers...the Lord is good to bring such things along at the right time :-):

[b]Faith and Prayer in the Details[/b]
[i]Isaiah 37:14; 1 Peter 1:7[/i]

Faith is the trend of the life all through, and everything that is not ‘hid with Christ in God’ is against it. [b]The trial of faith always comes in such a way that it is a perplexity to know what to do.[/b] You get advice that sounds wise, it has your welfare in view, everything seems right, and yet there is the feeling that there is error at the heart of it.

“And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord” (v. 14). [b]If any letter is not important enough to be ‘spread before the Lord’ it is too small to annoy you. If I have not prayed about things so ridiculously small that I almost blush to mention them, I have not learned the first lesson in prayer.[/b]

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Here is another thing by O.C.

[b]The Trial of Your Faith[/b]
[i]1 Peter 2:7[/i]

The nature of faith is that it must be tested; and the trial of faith does not come in fits and starts, it goes on all the time. [b]The one thing that keeps us right with God is the great work of His grace in our hearts.[/b] All the prophets had to take part in something they did not understand, and the Christian has to do the same. If we were to say, “This is the way God is going to work,” it would lead to spiritual pride, to the ban of finality about your views, to imagining that God was on our side. The question for us is, will we so yield ourselves wholly to the realization of some purpose of God. ‘Acts of your faith’ is in order to bring God into the practical details of your life.

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Those were some things that blessed me and I thought I'd pass them on to possibly encourage someone else. I know this is just the tip of a great iceberg on faith in Him and trials. Any further thoughts would be wonderful. :)

Keep trusting Him!

~Joy

lejfricke wrote:
I cannot thank you enough for posting this and for God leading me to it!
James talks about 'counting it all joy when you fall into divers temptations...' though I didn't have much of a grasp on it, this helps tremendously; Praise God for loving us enough to guide us, and teach us how to glorify Him... if we only seek Him!

Praise the Lord! That's wonderful, Leigh. Isn't the faithfulness of God amazing?!! He brings our way just what we need, just when we need it!
He is good.

BrokenOne wrote:

My trials actually serve the purposes of God in my life to purify, to bring me to a deeper place of denying self and dependence upon Him. There is nothing that happens in my life that need be wasted. He is able to use it all.

He is so wise. Glory to His name!

Amen, sister! Last night I was reading over 2 Corinthians 4 and considered posting those verses also! The verses before were also wonderful:

"We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
10 [b]Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
11 For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.[/b]
12 So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;
14 Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
15 [b]For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.[/b]
16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." 2 Corinthians 4:8-16
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[i]That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh...[/i] Such things we must go through that He might come forth in our lives.

[i]For which cause we faint not...[/i] When we keep our eyes [b]fixed on Jesus[/b] and what He is doing it keeps us running the race...

"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and [b]let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith;[/b] who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 [b]For consider him[/b] that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, [b]lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds[/b]." Hebrews 12:1-3

Here are some wonderful thoughts from Matthew Henry on the end of Romans 8:

[2.] We are more than conquerors. [b]In our patiently bearing these trials we are not only conquerors, but more than conquerors, that is, triumphers. Those are more than conquerors that conquer, First, With little loss. Many conquests are dearly bought; but what do the suffering saints lose? Why, they lose that which the gold loses in the furnace, nothing but the dross. It is no great loss to lose things which are not—a body that is of the earth, earthy.[/b]

Secondly, With great gain. The spoils are exceedingly rich; glory, honour, and peace, a crown of righteousness that fades not away. In this the suffering saints have triumphed; not only have not been separated from the love of Christ, but have been taken into the most sensible endearments and embraces of it. As afflictions abound, consolations much more abound, 2 Cor. i.5.

There is one more than a conqueror, when pressed above measure. He that embraced the stake, and said, "Welcome the cross of Christ, welcome everlasting life,"—he that dated his letter from the delectable orchard of the Leonine prison,—he that said, "In these flames I feel no more pain than if I were upon a bed of down,"—she who, a little before her martyrdom, being asked how she did, said, "Well and merry, and going to heaven,"—those that have gone smiling to the stake, and stood singing in the flames—these were more than conquerors.

[3.] It is only through Christ that loved us, the merit of his death taking the sting out of all these troubles, the Spirit of his grace strengthening us, and enabling us to bear them with holy courage and constancy, and coming in with special comforts and supports. [b]Thus we are conquerors, not in our own strength, but in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.[/b] We are conquerors by virtue of our interest in Christ's victory. He hath overcome the world for us (John xvi. 33), both the good things and the evil things of it; so that we have nothing to do but to pursue the victory, and to divide the spoil, and so are more than conquerors.
-Matthew Henry
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[i]First, With little loss. Many conquests are dearly bought; but what do the suffering saints lose? Why, they lose that which the gold loses in the furnace, nothing but the dross. It is no great loss to lose things which are not—a body that is of the earth, earthy.[/i]

Losing the dross...keep refining us, Lord, at any price, at any cost!