Faith must be tested

Peter does not ignore the weight of trials. They bring grief for a little while. Christian faith does not make us insensitive, nor does it require us to pretend strength when we are being pressed within. But trial has a place in God's work — and that work does not happen on the surface of the soul; it happens in the spirit, where the divine life operates to separate what is real from what is merely apparent.

Faith, more precious than gold, is tested by fire. Fire does not invent the value of gold; it reveals what is true and consumes what is impure. What it consumes is the outer man: trust in the visible, attachment to what men think, the illusion of control. Pain reveals which impulses still govern the soul instead of the spirit.

We do not need to flee what trial exposes. Anxiety, rebellion, and the desire for control can be brought into the light before God. He does not waste the suffering of His children; He uses even the fire to break the outer man and release the spirit into deeper fellowship with Christ. The goal of trial is not to destroy us; it is to form Christ in us.