Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Trial by Fire

UV 733/10,000 The Trial of Faith “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” 1 Peter 1 v 7 Just as gold and silver are refined and tested in the fire, trials have two functions with regard to our faith: the first, to refine it and purify it of the dross or impurities and the second, to test the purity of our faith. We have to be purified in terms of the flaws of our character, the innate tendencies in each one of us to yield to different types of temptations. The motives behind each thought and action that we undertake in faith need to be clarified. Gold and silver have only temporal value. But, our faith is of eternal value. It is written that there can be no triumph without a trial and no testimony without a test. We are tried by the ordeal of fire or by our suffering in this lifetime. We are tested to see how much we can endure without losing on our faith. Do we give praise, honour and glory to Jesus Christ only when things are hunky-dory or when the scenario looks depressing and dismal? Daniel and his friends trusted God to deliver them out of the fiery furnace and from the lions’ mouths. When they were delivered, it brought praise, honour and glory to God for the very king who had sentenced them to such trials recognized that the hand of the one true and mighty God had delivered them from a fiery and gruesome death. King Nebuchadnezar himself worshipped God and issued an edict directing all his subjects to honour the God of Daniel and his friends. When our character and lives are so purified, people can see the image of God in our faces, in our words and in our actions. Our faith when it is tested in this manner becames reinforced and enables us to encourage many others who face similar or worse trials in their lives. When my testimony was read and judged by Jack Canfield of “ Chicken Soup for the Soul” fame, he gave it 100 per cent and top prize in a national contest saying that it was so complete that he could not take or add a single word. We cannot experiment with the truth since Truth is much larger than any of us. We can only experience the truth. When we experience suffering, it builds our inner strength and moral stamina, our character and patience, a sense of empathy and compassion, a certain confidence and hope that God will enable us to withstand and overcome any trial that the Lord takes us through. Once the Lord affirmed, “ Your faith is not like gold and silver but it is like platinum that is dull to look at but is, in fact, even more precious than gold and silver.” Prateep V Philip

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