Thursday, August 9, 2012
1 Peter 1:6-9 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 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. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
THE FAITH
In the wintry vacant lot next to the old grain elevator, grade school boys were walking home from school when they decided to see who could make the straightest line across the snowy lot. As it turned out there was no clear winner because the youngest boy there was told the secret by his older brother. "Pick out something on the other side of the lot, walk toward it and keep your eyes on it. Don't look back!" It is also true in summer time. Whether mowing a lawn, plowing a field, or living a life, one needs the forward look. If you look back too much, the lines will wander this way and that.
In various trials that come upon us in this life, we are tempted to look this way and that, the waves over here, the pleasure or profit beckoning over there, and if we lose our forward look, our steps will wander away from our goal. So it is in times of suffering, that the forward look will help us through them. When Jesus went through the agony our sins deserved, He looked to the joy ahead for strength to endure. We, too, can look to the goal, our salvation, even though it is still unseen. And the trials have come just so that we will look to Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.
