"These have come so that your faith-of greater worth than gold,
which perishes even though refined by fire-may be proved genuine and may result
in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." - 1 Peter 1:7
One of the great tragedies of the Christian life is that if we fail to enter
into a relationship with God that is born of the Holy Spirit, we are left with a
religion, not a relationship. Many a person today lives with an intellectual
belief in God, but without a relationship that is based on two-way
communication. This is the greatest tragedy of all. It's like having a brand-new
car but never having the gas to run it. It can't move you anywhere. It only
looks pretty, but one cannot enjoy the ride or smell the newness inside.
Peter tells us that until our faith is proved genuine, we will never be able
to give praise, glory, and honor to Jesus, because until such testing He will
not be revealed in our lives. Peter describes this in the verse before: "In this
you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer
grief in all kinds of trials" (1 Pet. 1:6). Trials are designed to bring us to a
level of trust and experience with God that we would never know otherwise. These
"faith experiences" with God allow us to know firsthand the faithfulness of God,
the love of God, and the personal nature of God. If you cannot recount several
instances when God has met you personally, then chances are your faith has not
been born of the Holy Spirit into a living relationship with God. It is easy to
fall prey to a relationship to God that never experiences His real presence;
rather, it is based on knowledge only. This is a tragic place to be.
If this is where you have been in your Christian experience, ask God today to
make Himself real to you. Ask Him to show you His personal nature and love. He
desires to do this. Those whom He has called know His voice. He will show
Himself to those who are His. "He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I
too will love him and show Myself to him" (Jn. 14:21b).
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