Trials

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."

1 Peter 1:6-7

I have been rolling these verses over in my head all week. This week in my Sunday School class we are starting a series from 1 & 2 Peter. The purpose of Peter writing his first letter was to encourage and strengthen the members of the church as they faced trials and suffering in this life. So these 2 verses are important to the flow of Peter's thought and letter as they give encouragement but also to challenge the church to a stronger faith.

Everyone that is alive will at some point in this life face suffering and troubles of some sort. If we are true lovers of Jesus and telling others about Jesus we will also face some persecution to go along with our suffering and troubles. So what is it that challenges us, is it money problems, health problems, family issues, work issues, or even church problems? We all have some things that give us frustration, if we are not facing anything right now, I can guarantee that sooner rather than later something in this life will creep up. So how do we look at these trials? Do we cry out to God in pain or do we bury our feelings deep down inside? How we view our trials I have discovered says a lot about who we are as a person and who we are in Jesus. 

What if we never faced a single trial in this life? These verses in 1 Peter show us that trials and suffering in our life make our faith genuine and true. So if we had life always going our way could we actually say we have faith? I do not think so. The faith we have is strengthened and made genuine by the facing of trials and sufferings. God walks right beside us as He allows us to face these trials. God is holding our hand because He know that as we face trials in this life and overcome them in Him our faith is made true. Jesus death and our faith in Him is what saves us. But how can we know we have faith in God without it ever being tested and made genuine by trials. So I would say that the trials and suffering we face in this life proves our faith and is part of our salvation in God. 

So next time you think about the suffering you are in the middle of or the trial that is right around the corner, realize that these things make our faith genuine before God and hold us fast into His hand so our future salvation in Him is true and secure. That is why it is called perseverance of the saints.