SpotLight on the Scriptures Podcast
This is a spotlight on the Scriptures. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 1 Peter 1:6
The suffering and the security of the believer produce—of all things—joy! God our Father, according to His mercy—oh, He has been so merciful!—he has called us, he has brough us out of the darkness into the marvelous light. He has given us a new nature and a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And out yonder in the future He has a marvelous inheritance waiting for us. The text says in this you rejoice. Rejoice in what? In something good? No, “in the heaviness over many trials. rejoice and trials, are two words that are worlds apart: Listen all trials are designed to do three things: to verify your faith is real, (2) to grow your faith in Christ. (3) to glorify your Savior in your trials. Beloved you will never know what you really believe until your faith is tested. When you want to refinish some old furniture, you have to use some strong chemicals to strip away the old varnish. Then you have to used sandpaper to sand it down, to expose all the crooks, nooks and cracks that need to be repair. Now the sanding continues until the surface is even. Then it is varnished, over and over until it has a smooth, refinished surface. It is varnished until it gets back the glory of its originally intended look.
This is what 1 Peter 1:6 is saying, God will strip you down. He will sand and sand. He sands until He every scratch, every nook, and crack are exposed. This is the part hurts the worst. This is the part where most believers will cry out to the Lord in pain. This is the part when our faith must trust that His grace is sufficient. God follows the sanding process with the varnish. This is the point at which the life of Christ will shines through, in the life of the Christian. This is a spotlight on the Scriptures.
