“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.“
(1 Peter 1:6-7 ESV)
We are called to stand to the trials that we face, not just to endure them but some how to rejoice in them. Are Christians immune to depression, sadness, and despair? Absolutely not! Christians still live in this world. We are called to be in the world, but not of this world. If we are in the world, then we will face trials. Yet in these we must know that God is at work for our good. The knowledge that God is working in us in our trials should encourage us and temper our frustrations in the midst of trials.
Andrew Bonar, the Scottish Preacher, quoted a Puritan who said that “a stick in the water looks crooked, but take it out and it is straight.” For us what looks “crooked in life for us, is in God’s will a straight and good thing for us. The key is understanding that we do not see what God sees as we look at life.
I had a friend that said that God’s providence, his perfect plan, looks like to us here on earth the backside of a beginners cross stitch. The threads run back and forth. There are knots, twists, ends, frays. It looks like a mess, until you turn it over and you see that every little mess in the back makes a perfect image on the front. We see God’s plan at work from the back of the cross stitch. God sees it from the front and it is a perfect plan.
So we know that God uses these trials, problems, and difficult situations to grow us closer to Him and to learn to trust Him in all things.
Paul writes in Romans, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
(Romans 8:28 ESV)
Our trials show us who we are. We see that it is genuine faith that endures difficulties, those with a false faith fall away in the midst of trials. Peter is writing to a people that need to know that these trials are but for a time, then when Christ comes whatever suffering we have done for God will have been worth it.
Application: Do you struggle with why God lets things happen in your life? Are their times that it seems God has allowed something to happen and you are left wondering why. Faith is about not seeing, and we cannot know everything God knows. What we can know is what he has said. God has said that all things work for the good of those who believe. He has said that not even a single sparrow falls unless he knows it, how much more valuable are we. Christian know that God is working in your life even if on the surface it might not seem that way.
