I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. Matthew 25:36
There is a common perception in the world today that faith in Jesus Christ will exempt you from the trials and the hardships of life, especially those relating to our health, our happiness, and yes, our prosperity. When people buy into this concept and then discover altogether too soon that their prayers are not always answered or will not always turn back that hostility, they become disappointed and they are disillusioned.
In his book, Who Switched the Price Tags?, Tony Campolo tells of an incident when someone broke into a store and changed the price tags on merchandise, and I’m thinking that someone has been messing with the message and has switched the price tags when it comes to telling people that suffering is part of the package. Now, everyone won’t appreciate what you stand for and what you believe in.
Peter addressed this issue long ago in the first letter that bears his name: 1 Peter. He says that the believer’s response should not be to fight fire with fire, but rather to rejoice, because the Spirit of glory and of Christ rests on us. Now, Jesus said that we’re to rejoice when people persecute us and say all manner of evil against us, because they persecuted the prophets before us as well.
A hostile world is out there. But the real issue is, how do you respond to this? Do you fight fire with fire? Or do you rise above the trials and the difficulties with strength that others don’t have?
Peter advised, “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps … . When they hurled their insults at him,” he said, “he didn’t retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he trusted himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:21,23).
When times of difficulty come to you, there are promises which accompany them which we seldom remember.
First, times of difficulty are accompanied by the promise of His presence. Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). He also said, “I will be with you always … ” (Matthew 28:20). Now, would you be more comfortable with surgery if you knew that the hand of the doctor was in the hand of a living Savior who guided the doctor’s every move?
Furthermore, the trials which come to us also come with the promise of His protection. Peter again wrote, “[we are] shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials” (1 Peter 1:6-7).
“Father filtered” is the way one person expresses the belief that nothing can happen to us apart from the will and protection of God—which means He goes with us through the fiery trial and the dark valley.
There is also the promise of His purging or cleansing. Now, in spite of the fact that most of us would rather avoid tough times, good always comes out of them. Peter talked about our faith as gold, which is put into the furnace and refined, but he said that our faith will never perish, but gold will.
Amy Carmichael used to tell of a village goldsmith who would take ore and put it over a fire in a clay tile, occasionally raking off the impurities. “How do you know when the ore is ready?” He replied: “When I can see the reflection of my face in the ore.” So is it with the trials that produce the imprint of our Father’s face in our lives.
Yes, we would just as soon skip the trial, but the fiery trial produces the presence and purity of God. It is this the world cannot understand, not can it ever have.
Resource reading: Jeremiah 31:1-7
