1 Peter 1:7 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:
We all go through times of trial in our lifetime. It is unavoidable. We will get sick, we will suffer loss, life is hard often for everyone. We see our trials as a hindrance, a “problem that we have to deal with,” a test that we have to take, in a class we never registered for.
God on the other hand has a completely different perspective on the testing of our faith. To Him it is something that is precious. Even faith that is tried as by fire!! Those trials of our faith that there is no where to turn, but to Him. The times in our life when we finally come to the end of our self, and trust only in our Heavenly Father.
I remember working with a father and his son many years ago. I was a pipefitter at the time and the man I was working with brought his son to help us out on the job. The young man had never done this type of work in his life, but was eager to help us out. His dad wanted to teach him how to put threads on the end of a piece of pipe. It wasn’t a difficult thing to do, but the machine we used was powerful and could hurt you if you were not careful. His son told him he could do it on his own, the father insisted that he had never seen a pipe threader, much less used one. Well, after a short debate, the father allowed the son to give it a try. After a weak attempt at doing it on his own, my friend’s son had to admit he couldn’t do it and asked his father to teach him.
We are so much like that young man. Trials, problems, challenges come into our lives and we try to handle them on our own. Our Father wants us to depend upon Him, not our own abilities to handle problems. Then, after we have struggled for a while, we look to the Father to teach us. That is when it is precious to our Father. When we finally admit, we have no idea where the path ahead will lead, and we surrender our will over to Him.
Are you struggling to make it through a test of your faith today? Let the Lord lead. Make the trial of your faith a precious thing to Him today. You will see your faith become more precious that of gold!! Tested faith will last forever.