I know, right. Praise thanks to trials. Isn’t is something to not have to go through trials. Isn’t it smoother to just get along and not have to fight for everything. Well, I do not believe that to be true. I want to have trials and adversity to grow stronger and know what not to do. I want to be able to overcome.
“6In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7so 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.” — 1 Peter 1:6-7 (ESV)
I see that it is not the trial that defines or makes you. It is the overcoming of those trails and adversity. I am more precious, as noted in verse seven above, than gold, and gold is tested directly by fire and heat as it is purified. I am greater than that. The trials and adversity I experience are refining me even more than precious metals. I am greater and have more value thanks to the coming through the other side of the trials and adversity.
For my experience and overcoming, I have reason to praise the one who brought me through. It is the trial that brought me to a closer dependency in God, and He provided the strength and ability to make it through as He protected me, His precious, throughout the process.
I will praise Him thanks to the trials. Not because of the trial itself, because as a human I certainly do not want to experience them. But because of the strength provided so that I could overcome and make it through to the other side allowing God to work in me.
What trials have your experienced through your life? Are you just glad to have those trials over? What if you praised God thanks to the trials that you were able to overcome as a result of the strength given to you by God and the fact that He values you more than anything?
Trevor's Thoughts 