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 ever 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 lives today with an
intellectual belief in God, but without a relationship that is based upon
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 this happens He has
not been revealed in our lives. What allows us to experience this is what
Peter describes 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 Peter 1:6). Trials are designed to bring us to a level of trust
and experience with God that we would never know otherwise. It is these
“faith experiences” with God that 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” (John 14:21).