In
this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have
been grieved by manifold trials, that the proof of your faith, being much more
precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to
praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ…
1
Peter 1:6-7
Jesus,
You shine in marvelous splendor,
Reigning
from Heaven’s throne of glory!
Creator
of the sun, moon and stars of wonder;
Angels
praise Your Name from all eternity.
Sovereign
over all, You reign as the Prince of Life,
My
sins You carried in Your Body upon the tree.
Conquering
death, You arose with power divine,
Shepherd
of the stars, I now need You to carry me.
Shine
your wisdom upon this shadowed path of mine,
Give
me hope and the strength to carry on.
Anoint
me with Your gladness from on high,
Lift
up my head, my Light and great Salvation.
May
my faith come through this fire like pure gold,
Reflecting
and revealing Your marvelous glory.
These
trials will seem to us nothing when all is told,
Lift
up Your face and shine upon us; give us peace.
Endless
honor and praise to the Lord of uncreated light,
Any
glimmers streaming from us are borrowed rays.
Yet,
You bestow upon us the brightness of the noonday sky,
Like
the stars who will forever shine forth Your praise.
C.A.
TAYLOR
Prince of Life
Now
these ‘manifold trials’ assume many guises and employ varied weapons of painful
inquisition. Some of them may be found in the antagonism of men. Loyalty to
truth may be confronted with persecution. A beautiful ministry may be given an
evil interpretation. Our beneficence may be maligned. This may be one of ‘the
manifold trials.’ Or our antagonism may be found in the apparent hostility of
our circumstances. Success is denied us. Every way we take seems to bristle
with difficulties. Every street we enter proves to be a cul-de-sac. We never
emerge into an airy and spacious prosperity. We pass our days in material
straits. Such may be another of ‘the manifold trials.’ Or it may be that our
antagonist dwells in the realm of our own flesh. We suffer incessant pain. We
are just a bundle of exquisite nerves. The streets of the city are instruments
of torture. The bang of a door shakes the frail house to its base. We are easy
victims of physical depression. Who knows but that this may have been Paul’s
‘thorn in the flesh’? At any rate, it is one of ‘the manifold trials’ by which
many of our brethren are put to grief.
Why
do these trials come? Why are antagonisms allowed to range themselves across
our way? Why are there any blind streets which bar our progress? Whey does not
labor always issue in success? Why are ‘manifold trials’ permitted? We may find
a partial response in the words of our text. They are permitted for ‘the proof’
of our faith. That is the purposed ministry of the sharp antagonism and the
cloudy day—‘the proof of your faith.’ Now ‘to prove’ the faith means much more
than to test it.
First
of all, it means to reveal it. To
prove the faith is to prove it to others. God wants to reveal and emphasize
your faith, and so He sends the cloud. May we not say that the loveliness of
the moonlight is revealed and emphasized by the ministry of the cloud? It is
when there are a few clouds about, and the moonlight transfigures them, that
the glory of the moon herself is declared. And it is when the cloud is in our
life that the radiance of our faith is proved and proclaimed. The ‘manifold
trials’ set out in grand relief that which might have remained a commonplace.
Light which fringes the cloud is light which is beautified. Faith which gleams
from behind the trial is faith which is glorified. It is the hard circumstance
that sets in relief the quality of our devotion.
But
‘the manifold trials’ do more than reveal the faith. There is another ministry
wrapped up in this suggestive word ‘prove.’ The trial that reveals the faith
also strengthens and confirms it. The
faith that is ‘proved’ is more richly endowed. The strong wind and rain which
try the tree are also the ministers of its invigoration. The round of varying
seasons makes the tree ‘well seasoned,’ and solidifies and enriches its fibre.
It is the negative that develops the strength of the affirmative. It is
antagonism that cultivates the wrestler. It is the trial that makes the saint.
The man who sustains his hold upon God through one trial will find it easier to
confront the next trial and exploit it for eternal good. And so these ‘manifold
trials’ prove our faith. They reveal and they enrich our resources. They
strengthen and refine our spiritual apprehension. They may strip us of our
material possessions, ‘the gold that perisheth,’ but they endow us with the
wealth of that ‘inheritance’ which is ‘incorruptible, and undefiled, and that
fadeth not away.’
JAMES HASTINGS
The
Speakers Bible -1 Peter
No
man gets good for himself alone out of his sorrows. Whatever purifies and makes
gentler and more Christ-like, whatever teaches or builds up—and sorrows rightly
borne do all these—is for the common good. Be our trials great or small, be
they minute and everyday—like gnats that hum about us in clouds, and may be
swept away by the hand, and irritate rather than hurt when they sting—or be
they huge and formidable, like the viper that clings to the wrist and poisons
the life-blood, they are meant to give us good gifts, which may transmit to the
narrow circle of our homes, and in every widening ring of influence to all
around us.
We shall never
understand our sorrows unless we try to answer the question, What good to
others is meant to come through me by this?
ALEXANDER MaCLAREN
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