The Trial of Your Faith, Part 2

We pick up where we left off considering “the trial of your faith,” which is mentioned in this passage:

1 Peter 1:6  Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

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….

Three words that I have often emphasized when I have dealt with this passage are those words “if need be.” If you are presently “in heaviness through manifold temptations,” it is because you need to be. Any temptation in your life is there because it needs to be. Furthermore, it can only be there if God permits it to be.

1 Corinthians 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

This verse lets us know that it is God that suffers (permits) a temptation to get through to us. But it also assures us that our God is faithful to never let any temptation get to us that is above our ability to bear. And He will “with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” Now Satan will do his utmost to convince you that whatever trial you undergoing is more than you can handle. But that is his lie to get you to doubt God’s faithfulness. And once you doubt that, Satan has you right where he wants you. So when you are in heaviness, keep 1Corinthians 10:13 steadily in mind.

There are a couple of other very important things that 1Corinthians teaches about a temptation. Not only it is there because God allowed it, but it is also common to man. You are not the only one to struggle with it.

1 Peter 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

9  Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

Because we are Christians our battles with the devil certainly qualify to be afflictions for us, and they are afflictions our brethren also experience. And it gives us comfort to know this. This very point jumped out at me one time when I was reading the book of Lamentations.

Lamentations 2:13  What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?

Note that in order to comfort the virgin daughter of Zion, the prophet needed to find something to liken to her or to equal her. So it is with us. If we learn of something that is like to what we are dealing with or equal to our temptation, we find comfort. We don’t feel so alone or odd in that case. We all have experienced sharing a struggle with someone and discovering to our great relief that they have had the same struggle.

Another very important thing to glean from 1Corinthians 10:13 is that when you are dealing with a difficult temptation, God in His faithfulness will make a way of escape so that you can bear it without being overcome by it. But note! This point is crucial! The escape is not that the temptation goes away entirely. Rather, the escape is found in being able to bear it! God provides some outlet, some resource so that you find help, comfort, and peace to be able to bear it. Don’t doubt this because if you do, the help could be right in front of you staring you in the face and you won’t see it. Nothing is so blinding as unbelief in the word of the living God.

I go to 1Corinthians 10:13 because it is so germane to the subject of temptation and we are dealing with the “manifold temptations” mentioned in 1Peter 1:6-7. But I now wish to come back to 1Peter 1:6-7 from which I draw the title of these meditations, The Trial of Your Faith. Zero in on those words “more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire.” Now the question is whether Peter is describing “your faith” as being more precious than gold, or “the trial of your faith” as being more precious than gold. Is it the faith or the trial that is more precious than gold? Well, if you think about it, it’s both. There is no question that faith is precious. In his second epistle, Peter writes “to them that have obtained like precious faith with us” (2Peter 1:1). And faith is more precious “than gold that perisheth.” But insofar as our trials purify our faith like fire purifies gold thus making better stuff of our faith, the trial can also be deemed precious.

Now I shall have more to say about why the trial of your faith is so precious, but that will be for another installment, God willing. For now I would like to exhort you to examine yourself as to just how precious your faith is to you. Is it more precious than your most precious material possession such as gold might be? This verse should give you some idea of the premium God places upon faith:

James 2:5  Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?

If you have faith, you have the potential to be very rich, if that faith increases. And that is what the trial of your faith is all about. If you properly respond to the trial, it will purify your faith of its weaknesses and cause it to be stronger and thus better. So why wouldn’t you consider the process precious that increases the value of your most precious possession? In the end it will only make you richer. Perhaps you can now get a glimpse into why the apostle Paul could write: “most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities” (2Corinthians 12:9). Those infirmities enriched his faith. This was a man so rich in faith that he “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). How would you like to have a faith that was even remotely that effective? And if you are “rich in faith,” then you are “heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him.” As is said in our modern slang, “It don’t get no better than that!”