Let it Rise

"Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you." (1 Peter 4:12)

Without heat applied, these heart-shaped biscuits could not have risen, and they would have remained colorless and flavorless dough.

Without the heat of being placed into a hot oven, they would be inedible.

In much the same way, without the heat of fiery trials applied to our lives, we too would remain colorless and flavorless.

Viktor Emil Frankl, who personally endured and survived the horrors of the fiery trials of Auschwitz during the Holocaust wrote:

"What is to give light must endure burning."

Frankl, who lost his wife and most of his entire family to the murderous Nazis, wrote the the following from his experiences during the Holocaust:

"For the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth—that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way—an honorable way—in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment. For the first time in my life I was able to understand the meaning of the words, "The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory."

Honestly, I don't know if I personally could have endured all that Frankl endured, losing his wife and family in the way that he did, and be able to proclaim the above statement.

But the Word of God tells us to rejoice in life's fiery trials.

Rejoice?

How do I do that?

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness 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)

Our faith—which is not of ourselves, it is a gift from God—is said to be "much more precious than gold." And this precious gold must be "tested by fire."

Why by fire?

A refiner of gold uses extreme heat to bring the dross, or impurities of the raw gold to the surface, where he can sift it off. The refining and sifting is a process. The way the refiner knows that his gold is pure, is when he can see his own reflection in the shiny gold. Our God is the Great Refiner, and He uses the fiery heat of trials to bring our impurities to the surface, where He can sift them off—as we confess them.

Our precious faith must be tested. And it's going to burn at times.

But when Jesus Christ is revealed and we, once and for all, see Him face-to-face, we shall truly rejoice, because the Word says, "When we see Him, we shall be like Him; and we shall see Him as He is." (1 John 3:2)

Personally, I can't wait for that Day!

But until that glorious day comes, be patient, and let your Great Refiner have His way in you. Surrender yourself to His refining fire process. Through this fiery process, Jesus is making you more and like Him, every day.

When He comes, He will see sons and daughters that are like Him.

"Love endures all things." (1 Corinthians 13:7)

Bread can only rise in the heat of the oven.

Let it rise!

—God is Love, and Love Never Fails.