FAITH MORE PRECIOUS THAN GOLD

“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire —may result in praise, glory, and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:6-7

I am a fan of Bear Grylls. In case you don’t know who Bear Grylls is, let me tell you about him. He is a British adventurer and survival specialist. He hosts a programme on TV called “Running Wild With Bear Grylls” in which he takes celebrities on a two-day adventure into the remotest, most inaccessible and inhospitable places on earth.

The Amazon jungle, Colorado mountains, and the snow-covered peaks of the Dolomites in northern Italy, the Nevada desert, the steep cliffs on the coast of Wales, and even the remote interior of the Great Karoo are his playground. He guides his novice adventure companions through impossible terrain to survive the rigors of the journey to their extraction point.

He takes no food, eats what they can find, sleeps in caves, under trees, in holes in the snow, in hastily constructed shelters, or just wherever he and his companion can be safe.

Bear’s most important piece of equipment is his rope. It is long, strong, and reliable enough to bear his weight and the weight of his companion, sometimes together, scaling mountains, rappelling down steep cliffs, slipping and sliding down frozen waterfalls, and crossing raging torrents and deep gorges.

However, Bear’s experience and survival skills have taught him that confidence in his rope is not enough. If he does not anchor his rope around a strong object that will support a heavy weight, he will fall to his death if the anchor gives way. He uses chunks of ice, boulders, trees, clumps of bushes and even a crevice in a rock if it grips the rope firmly enough to secure it.

Bear’s adventures in the wild teach us a powerful  lesson about the nature and purpose of our faith.

Ancient Hebrew words reveal some of the secrets of God’s truth. Take the word “wait” in Isaiah 40, for example.

“… Those who hope in (wait on) the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint.”

Isaiah 40:31 NIV

The word “qavah”, here translated “hope”, is often translated “wait” in other versions. Its origin is the idea of twisting, referring to a rope maker who twists strands of thread together to make a sturdy rope.

While we “wait” for or “hope” in the Lord, we twist together our life experiences to develop our “rope” of faith. God often delays His responses to test the genuineness of our faith in Him or, to change the metaphor, He puts our faith through fire, like gold, to remove the impurities.

So, if our faith in God is genuine, like Bear’s rope, our rope will be strong enough to bear our (wait) weight when the severe tests come.

However, as important as our faith is, since it is our only link with God, we must also be sure of the object of our faith. To what or to whom do we anchor our trust when we have mountains to climb or deep gorges to cross?

Who is the God upon whom we depend? Is He the great “Sugar Daddy” in the sky whom we can manipulate to give us what we want? Is He the sovereign God whose character and motives are so flawless that we can trust Him to make the best choices for us? Is the One to whom our faith is anchored worthy of our trust?

There is expression believers often use that unwittingly reveals their “anchor”. “I am trusting God for…” This is the Sugar Daddy tree or bush or rock on which their faith depends. This “god” does not exist since he does not fit the description of the God of the Bible, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our faith is misplaced. Trust in this “god” will always disappoint us.

Bear’s adventures have yet other important considerations… the motive for their journey and the goal which they strain to reach, their extraction point. At the end of their journey is a vessel or vehicle that will take them home. Their destiny is not to remain in the wilderness but to take the lessons they have learned with them as they go on in life.

The two adventurers don’t allow beautiful views or intriguing discoveries to distract them from reaching their goal. Home is where they are headed regardless of their experiences on the way.

We also must consider the motive of our faith in God. Take Job, for example. There was a sting in the tail of Satan’s taunts when God drew his attention to Job and his upright character. Was God baiting Satan to test the motive of Job’s faith in Him?

Was Job’s trust in God “Sugar Daddy” faith, or was he firmly anchored in God’s character, no matter what?

Job initially subscribed to the philosophy of his day, expressed in the accusations of his three so-called friends. “God blesses the righteous and punishes the wicked.” Therefore, Job must have done wrong to have been so severely punished.

Job’s denial of wrongdoing flew in the face of this shaky belief. He was forced to rethink his values and his motive for trusting God even in the severest of trials. Would he give up on God because his faith had failed to get him what he wanted? Would he keep trusting even if he had no explanation for his trusting?

At no point did God, in His response to Job’s adamant defence of his innocence, explain His actions. To have disclosed the conversation between Himself and Satan would have ruined and thwarted the purpose of the test.

Did Job blame the devil for what he was suffering? No! His issue was with God, not the devil, and the challenge to his belief that God blesses the righteous and punishes the wicked.

God’s silence frustrated Job. Where was God? Why didn’t He answer him? The more he questioned God’s motives, the deeper he got into his own muddled thinking until God had had enough. “Shut up, Job!” He shouted. “Listen to me.”

God’s challenge to Job shook him to his foundations. Job had to learn that he had no part in God’s creative power and wisdom. “Where were you when I did all this stuff?” God demanded.

God’s response smartly put Job in his place. Since He was solely responsible for all the mysteries and miracles of nature and was not in consultation with or answerable to Job, He was under no obligation to explain His actions when He permitted Job to be stripped of his wealth and comforts to the bone.

Did Job pass the test? Was his motive for trusting God pure or tainted with selfishness and greed? Apparently, God’s confidence in Job’s integrity was not misplaced. Satan lost the challenge. Despite Job’s misery, grief, and complaints, never once did he give up on God. Time and again, he affirmed his faith in some of the loftiest statements in Scripture. “I know that my Redeemer lives…” and “… when I am tested, I shall come forth as gold.”

Job’s final response was to repent in dust and. ashes. God was right and he was wrong.

What of our motive for enduring suffering with a robust faith in God? What is our motive for hanging on to our rope when we can’t see the bottom?

Fortunately, we don’t have to guess what the goal and motive of our faith is. God Himself tells us His dream.

Paul expresses God’s heart in one sublime and confident statement, “We know…”

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”

Romans 8:28-29 NIV

“… In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose….”  This is the God to whom we anchor our rope… the God who has the power and the will to work in all things for our good because He has a motive and a goal.

When we embrace His motive and goal for us, we are right on track to reach our “extraction point” and to go home.

So, what is our motive for trusting Him? We know that He is painting a bigger picture on a bigger canvas than we can see. A family of sons and daughters, exact replicas of His beloved Son, is what He is working on, on His canvas.

How will He accomplish His purpose? By chipping away, through hardship, trial and suffering, everything that obscures the image of His Son in us. What does Jesus look like? A perfectly submissive, obedient, and trusting Son, guarding His unity with the Father no matter what it cost Him because of the love that binds them together.

When we are distracted by the tinsel and trinkets of a transient world by our “trusting God for…” we exchange our God-given goal of likeness to Jesus for self-centred ambitions that take us on a deadly detour to end in loss.

Only calm assurance that God’s goal is best will keep us through suffering with joyful anticipation of its outcome.

And His motive?

“… That he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”

Jesus, always Jesus!

For more information on the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of the firstborn in the Bible, clearly explained in the article, “Why is the firstborn so important in the Bible?”, go to gotquestions.com/firstborn-in-the-Bible.html

God has exalted Jesus to the highest place as the supreme authority (Lord) over all things. So, in the end, all the glory for who He is and what He does and has done, must reflect on Him.

“Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Philippians 2:9-11 NIV

If our suffering and hardship does not accomplish the goal for what it is intended, that we be transformed into the likeness of Jesus, we will never see the bigger picture. If our motive is not to endure with patience and joy the trials we experience because of the outcome that Jesus may be exalted through us, then we cannot rejoice in the glorious future the Father has planned for us. Our faith will have been a futile exercise, achieving nothing.