We can safely and confidently trust God for everything.
What was that? I heard someone objecting to the title – saying that trials and gold are not in the same category because trials are miserable, hard to endure and filled with stress and uncertainty. Hold your horses - - that is the natural ‘common sense’ path. Let’s follow the supernatural faith path and see what we can learn. Common sense is not faith and often screams at us that what our faith believes is a lie.
I was brought up in an evangelical church which preached the Truth of salvation only in Jesus Christ. But the Head of that congregation was not Jesus but Legalism. There were many strict “thou shalt nots” but no freedom for the sweetness of the essential “thou shalts”. So, of course, there was rampant gossip and judging of what people said and did. Different denominations had slightly differing rules. Anyone who was seen to not keep the rules was harshly judged as a backslider. I don’t think faith and joy have any breathing room in legalism. (Please don’t tell anyone this but when I was very young, sometimes I read the comics on Sunday!)
Since I now know that in my flesh (Romans 7:18-19) dwells no good thing and I am to put no confidence (Philippians 3:3) in self effort, there was no possibility that I could keep those rules. Legalism demands an outward performance but the Lord offers an inner, loving, heart-to-heart relationship with Himself.
O.K. now let’s see if Peter makes sense:
Don’t be surprised (1 Peter 4:12-13) concerning the fiery trial. I think the word “fiery” could be a key on the path to our goal. Why not be surprised, even bewildered? Because it is a God-ordained necessity in our progressive sanctification. We know that gold is refined by fire and it’s in the fire that all impurities are removed. The fire tests and proves if it is genuine gold and how much it’s worth. The genuineness of our faith cannot be proven by words or in any other way except to be tested by trial. Faith never tested is not faith at all. Every trial can purify our faith, prove if it’s genuine and in the fire make it ever stronger. This proving of our faith is intended (1 Peter 1:7) for our praise, glory and honour when Jesus comes. How could that be true if our faith and obedience does not bring praise, glory and honour to the Lord now? It’s in the bondage-freeing fire that we (Daniel 3:25) encounter the Son of God.
Remember that everything is not only for NOW. Everything of trial, faith and obedience in this life (1 Peter 4:1) is preparation for the glory and rejoicing of the life to come. So, we walk by faith (2 Corinthians .5:7) not by sight.
How do we get so off-track? If something suddenly hits, frightens or alarms us, of course, initially, we’ll be upset. That is not sin unless we stay there. Immediately we need to turn it over to the Lord, accept it from the Father’s hand and trust Him for His purpose and our spiritual benefits. It is evident that He is working in our lives. If we stay in a tizzy, frantically trying to think it out, figure it out, work it out - - the thorns will choke (Matthew 13:7,22) the Word of God and we will have wasted an opportunity for the sweetness of deeper, richer intimacy with Jesus.
Remember those legalism rules we couldn’t keep? Good news for believers! Jesus (Matthew 5:19) fulfilled the Law and therefore we who have put our faith in Him for cleansing and salvation, because
He shares His very life, victorious, resurrection life with us (are you listening?) the righteous requirements of the Law (Romans 8:4) are fulfilled in us!
We can safely and confidently trust God for everything including our physical needs. Because our bodies (2 Corinthians 6:16) are the temples of the Living God, as wise stewards we are required to take care of our health and keep in mind that self-indulgence is abuse of God’s temple.
The door to the temple (Ezekiel 47:1) is the mind and what we think is vital to our spiritual life because everything begins with a thought. The mind is the womb where every obedience and every sin is formed to be brought to birth. We can choose what kind of a birthplace our minds will be. Meditation on God’s Word will keep our minds (Romans 12:2) continually renewed so that we can prove for ourselves what is the perfect will of God. Our bodies are also (1Corinthians 6:19) the temples of the Holy Spirit – the shrine where the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:27) makes intercession for us and on our behalf for others because we often have limited or almost no information – just the burden. It is essential that the prayer room of the Holy Spirit be pure so that there is nothing in us to hinder His intercession. We can have a wonderful, deep loving friendship with the Holy Spirit. We need to be aware of the undetected sacredness of the God-ordained circumstances of our everyday lives.
What a glorious privilege we have to live worry-free 24/7 with our precious, heavenly Father. He overlooks nothing. He missed nothing. He takes care of every detail of our lives.
A couple of lines from one of my favourite hymns:-
Thou hast bid me gaze upon Thee and
Thy beauty (Psalms 27:4) fills my soul
And
Jesus I am resting, resting in the joy of what Thou art,
And Thy love so pure, so changeless, satisfies my heart.
We can be so safe and secure in God’s Sovereign love that our richer-than-gold trials will make us (Romans 8:37) more than conquerors.