Gold
| 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 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 honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1Peter1:6-7) |
In order to be purified gold has to be melted. Being a heavy metal, gold sinks to the bottom and the impurities (dross) float to the top. Fortunately for gold, it has no nerves, emotions or fears.
When it comes to the refining of our faith, we are slightly more sensitive than gold(!). The smelting of our faith - reducing it to the fragile liquid form - is traumatic for us. Whether the trials are physical illness, loss, stress, persecution or uncertainty, we fear the process because we have nerves, emotions and fears.
Although God is not the author of our trials, He does allow them to come and then transforms our suffering to bring about our growth and development as people and as believers.
This is where Peter's "in this" is so important: Trouble, brokenness and trials are a reality of a world broken by sin - they are inevitable. But Jesus experienced ultimate darkness and brokenness on the cross and conquered it in resurrection and so we are never alone.
As we face trials God is mischievously at work. He transforms the trial that evil would use to destroy us and He lovingly refines our faith. (Imagine the gold of faith being poured into God's hands instead of a mould then we get the right idea...) The results of smelting, if we remain in the hands of the Master Craftsman, are beautiful: We become people lovingly shaped by Him.
