Why does life sometimes hurt so much? Or maybe some might prefer to ask: why does life so often hurt so much?
Peter tells us that trials are God’s way of testing our faith. A precious metal can be heated so that it liquifies and impurities can be skimmed off. In much the same way God uses trials to purify our hearts and lives. Trials make us more dependent on God. They change us so that we are better equipped to praise and glorify and honour Christ, both now and forever.
Trials, therefore, are things we can rejoice in (James 1). A craftsman will not bother to purify worthless fools gold. If we are being tested by God, it means that He considers us as precious in His sight.
Don’t work against God by complaining and lashing out in your suffering. Work with Him by prayerfully seeking to understand how this particular trial is helping you to identify areas of your heart and life where you need to grow in sanctification. Ask Him and expect Him to use the trial to remove those impurities and make you grow in grace. Ask Him for grace to be able to praise Him in your suffering; to be able to praise Him *for* your suffering. He will give it, because that is His purpose for you: to lift you up to ever higher and more ineffably glorious heights of holy, pure, intensely focussed praise and worship. Yes, He purposes to prepare you for worshipping Him perfectly for ever and ever with the angels and all the saints.
“… you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
This meditation was written by Ken Wieske, missionary pastor of the Canadian Reformed Church at Aldergove to Recife, Brazil.
One Christian Dad 