Tried with FIRE.
What? Did you think that meant you'd be tried with a tiny flame of a candle barely warming your flesh? Is that what we imagine it should be? Our FAITH is tried, whether we like it or not. And there is only one way to get out of that trial by fire and that is by choosing not to have faith. And EVEN then, you are not guaranteed to have no trials in your life- it's not an instant care free, trial free, easy going life from there on in. Nope. It just means all your pains and heartaches are not accomplishing any refining of faith- they are meaningless.
Fire is an awful, wondrous thing. Fire destroys and gives life. Fire shapes metals into objects, fire melts metals so they can be poured into molds. When silver or gold are refined the extreme heat of the fire it tremendous. We can think of a white hot poker in a fire and imagine it being pressed against flesh, the agony of that heat, that burning it horrific. Now for a moment realize- the poker wasn't heated to a melting point.
(Silver's melting point- 1,763 degrees Fahrenheit or 961.8 degrees Celsius) (Gold's melting point- 1,943 degrees Fahrenheit (1,062 degrees Celsius)
A fire that hot allows those metals to be refined. If we don't consider the intense heat of a refiner's fire we aren't comprehending the intense spiritual fire we must endure.
Your life might consist of one awful trial after another and you might be in that refiner's fire for an awfully long time- so long you're sure it might destroy you, but perhaps you are so incredibly special to God and the plans He has for you that He is taking a long time to refine you.
Is this truth? It's an analogy of truth. We are given this analogy so we can apply it to our lives and know that even in the hottest of refining fires God is with us. Satan would have us believe God has tossed us into a fire of evil, a punishment, a faith destroying furnace. If we allow ourselves to believe Satan, we will be stripped of faith in God, stripped of hope in salvation. Satan wants us to believe the waking nightmares we live in are a result of God punishing us, not refining us. The evil one will us each and every fire trial in our lives to push his agenda - that God has forsaken us, left us to suffer endlessly. Can our lives right now be those of endless suffering and God still be in our lives- guiding us? Yes. Endless suffering right now, is temporary to eternity. No matter how long we suffer through our lives, never having it easy, always facing trial and tribulations, escalating as we endure, God's eternity awaits beyond it all. This is our HOPE.
My heart breaks for the suffering all around me that so many have to endure. I wish I could ease their pain, their agonies of living. I pray for their relief, I pray for their faith, I pray they see past the pain to eternity's promise. I pray I too will see past my pain in the same way, I am so far from being without complaint. Please, Lord, forever be our hope! Please, keep us from the Devil's snare! Please, keep us from evil! Please, keep us from despair. All through the love of Jesus Christ, Your only begotten Son! Jesus walked through the refiner's fire, though He had no impurities to refine. Jesus felt the fiery trials we endure- every one of them in a way we can't fully comprehend. He knows… He knows and He loves us so much! May we be His always!
1Pe_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
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