Tried By Fire # 3

Tried By Fire # 3

In some moods we are apt to question the wisdom and right of God to try us. So often we murmur at His dispensations. Why should God lay such an intolerable burden upon me? Why should others be spared their loved ones, and mine taken? Why should health and strength, perhaps the gift of sight, be denied me? The first answer to all such questions is, "who are you, O man, to talk back to God?" It is wicked insubordination for any creature to call into question the dealings of the great Creator. "Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it - Why have you made me thus?" (Romans 9:20). How earnestly each of us need to cry unto God, that His grace may silence our rebellious lips and still the tempest within our desperately wicked hearts!

But to the humble soul which bows in submission before the sovereign dispensations of the all-wise God, Scripture affords some light on the problem. This light may not satisfy reason, but it will bring comfort and strength when received in child-like faith and simplicity. In 1 Peter 1:6 we read; "In this (God's salvation) you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." Note three things here. First, there is a needs-be for the trial of faith. Since God says it, let us accept it. Second, this trying of faith is precious, far more so than of gold. It is precious to God (Psalm 116:15) and will yet be so to us. Third, the present trial has in view the future. Where the trial has been meekly endured and bravely borne, there will be a grand reward at the appearing of our Redeemer.

Again, in 1 Peter 4:12, 13 we are told: "Beloved, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed." The same thoughts are expressed here as in the previous passage. There is a needs-be for our trials and therefore we are not to be surprised at them - we should expect them. And, too, there is again the blessed outlook of being richly recompensed at Christ's return. Then there is the added word that not only should we meet these trials with faith's fortitude, but we should rejoice in them, inasmuch as we are permitted to have fellowship in "the sufferings of Christ." He, too, suffered: sufficient then, for the disciple to be as his Master.

"When He has tried me." Dear Christian reader, there are no exceptions. God had only one Son without sin, but never one without sorrow. "We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God" (Acts 14:22). It has been so in every age.

3. The Ultimate Outcome

"I shall come forth as gold." Observe the tense here. Job did not imagine that he was pure gold already. "I shall come forth as gold," he declared. He knew full well that there was yet much dross in him. He did not boast that he was already perfect. Far from it. In the final chapter of his book we find him saying, "I abhor myself" (42:6). And well he might - and well may we! As we discover that in our flesh there dwells "no good thing," as we examine ourselves and our ways in the light of God's Word and behold our innumerable failures, we have good reason here  for abhorring ourselves. Ah, Christian reader, there is much dross about us. But it will not ever be thus.

"I shall come forth as gold." This was said by one who knew affliction and sorrow as few among the us have known them. Yet despite his fiery trials he was optimistic. Let then this triumphant language be ours. "I shall come forth as gold" is not the language of carnal boasting, but the confidence of one whose mind was stayed upon God. There will be no credit to our account - the glory will all belong to the Divine Refiner. (James 1:12).

For the present there remain two things: first, Love is the Divine thermometer while we are in the crucible of testing - "And He shall sit (the patience of Divine grace) as a Refiner and Purifier
of silver," etc. (Mal. 3:3). Second, the Lord Himself is with us in the fiery furnace, as He was with the three young Hebrews (Dan. 3:25). For the future this is sure - the most wonderful thing in heaven will not be the golden street or the golden harps - but golden souls on which is stamped the image of God, "predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son!" Praise God fur such a glorious prospect, such a victorious outcome, such a marvelous end!

~A. W. Pink~

(The End)