1 Peter 1:6-12

⁶ So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. ⁷ These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.⁸ You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. ⁹ The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.¹⁰ This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you. ¹¹ They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and his great glory afterward.¹² They were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for you. And now this Good News has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. It is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen.

• Trials can deepen our love for the Lord. 

Verse 8 says, “You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.” The word for love here is agapeo, which refers to an unconditional, not an emotional love. Trials have a way of getting us to what really matters. We might skate along on the superficial and emotional level for a while but when problems come, we’re forced to either say “later” to the Lord or to love Him at a much deeper level.

• Trials can grow our joy in Jesus. 

You can have joy in the midst of the junk. In the bible sadness and gladness often coexist side by side, its one of the greatest paradoxes of Christianity. In Acts 5:41 we find Peter and John “rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.”

• Trials help us put our hope in the Lord. 

Verse 9 says, “The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.” Our hope is in what is ahead, our home in heaven, its not in our earthly homes or our health. Sometimes it’s only when suffering has strips us of everything but the Savior that we realize how rich we are. What if we were to stop focusing on the garbage and start focusing on the glory? Are you going to focus on the hurts or the hope? For believers all of our bad days on earth will be better than one day in Hell. The mark of maturity isn’t so much what you know but what happens to your worship in the winter, when the winds of worry blow and things go from bad to worse. Are you going to be a fair weather worshipper or a fearless one? Mature Christians don’t waste there energy moaning and groaning they chose to give God the glory. Praise is not a denial of problems, Peter doesn’t deny or dismiss the problems and the pressures of this life but he says that they don’t have to dominate us. He is telling us to stop giving priority to the problems and to start making praise our priority. Look our problems are for a little while but praise is for eternity. What if instead of getting worked up over worry we start getting worked up over worship? As you go through this season of suffering are you going to chose to seek the Savior and sing or allow your suffering to sour and suffocate you? What are you going to do with your pain? As a pastor people will often come to me and share their pain. Once as I was greet people coming in to church a man place in my hand 5 silver coins. He said I don’t want to hold on to these anymore it’s too much pain I’m giving them to God so that he can use them for his glory. As a young man he had chosen to serve his country and join the military. His parents were so angry at his decision that they disowned him and gave his stuff away which included these 5 silver coins that his grandfather had saved and given to him when he was a boy. Many years later a cousin who had gotten the coins returned them to him, but they only stirred up hurtful memories. So that Sunday morning he let go of them and the painful memories they stirred up. After much prayer I decided to keep the coins and use them to share his story and every time I did give to a ministry the amount those coins would be worth. Over the years I have given those coins away many times over. What once was painful is now productive. I wonder what could God do with your hurts if you placed them into His hands? What if today you gave your hurts to the Healer. 

1 Peter 1:6-12

⁶ So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. ⁷ These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.⁸ You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. ⁹ The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.¹⁰ This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you. ¹¹ They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and his great glory afterward.¹² They were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for you. And now this Good News has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. It is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen.

• Trials are Transforming.

There is a story told about two brothers who were trying to cash in on a bounty of $5,000 for capturing wolves alive. Day and night they scoured the mountains looking for their valuable prey. Exhausted one night after they had fallen asleep one  of the brothers woke up to find that they were surrounded by about fifty wolves growling with their teeth bared. He nudged his brother and said, “Wake up, we’re rich!” Some of you right now are facing a pack of problems, and the wolves of worry are nipping at your heels but you don’t feel very rich. But contrary to what one might expected, as I look back on my experiences, especially the painful and problematic ones I have actually found them to be the most profitable. The greatest times of growth have come not through the good times but through the groaning times. Everything that has truly enhanced and enlightened my existence, has actually come through hardship not happiness. There is a purpose behind the problems; trials can fortify your faith. Do you believe that God’s plan is perfect even in the problems, that He has a plan to use your pain for His purposes? I love what Joseph said to his brothers who had wronged him and said in Genesis 50:20: “What you intended as harm God intended for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.” Only God can use your pain for gain. It’s in the trials that the power and the presence of God is often seen, it was in the midst of a fiery trial when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were thrown into the furnace heated seven times hotter than normal that they experienced the Son of God. Because Jesus was in the fire with them, they were protected. Peter also knew what it was to face the storm, and as long as he looked to the Lord he walked on the waves, but when he focused on the storm and not on the Savior he sank. Peter continued to face trials throughout his life. He discovered that what may seem bad can actually be a blessing, that God can use trials to bring benefits into our lives. And so he shares with a suffering church the truth that when we responded to rightly, our trials can be transforming.

• Trials can strengthen our faith in the Lord.  

Look at verse 7. The word “genuine” means that which is proven. Just as gold is purified through fire, so too our faith is proven through pain. God says this in Isaiah 48:10 “I have refined you, but not as silver is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering” Job who went through terrible trials knew that his suffering would serve to strengthen him when he cried out in Job 23:10: “But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.” Can a faith that is not tested really be trusted?  In Bible times when a craftsman would want to make something of fine gold, he would purify it using a furnace of intense heat, so that all the impurities would be burned out. The goldsmith would know the work was done when he could see the reflection of his own face in the liquefied gold. Sometimes God turns up the heat in our lives in order to work out the impurities. Do you realize that Pain can Purify and Trials can temper us? If everything went well how would you ever know if your faith was real?” You know your faith is the real when you’re going through the garbage and you’re still giving God the glory.