1 Peter 1:6 - Faith and Trials.

1Pet.1:6: Faith and Trials.

1 Pet 1:6 (NLT)  So be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead,
even though it is necessary for you to endure many trials for a
while.

As gold is heated, impurities float to the top and can be
skimmed off. Steel is tempered or strengthened by heating it in fire.
Likewise, our trials, struggles, and persecutions refine and strengthen
our faith, making us useful to God. [Life Application SB]

Peter views trials of faith as essentially productive. To
illustrate the point, the author refers to the common practice of
subjecting gold to such intense heat that the initial form of it is
destroyed. When the gold is ready to be remolded, however, the impurities
have also perished in the flame. Trials and difficulties may assail
the life of a believer, but they also have the ability to identify
and banish those impurities which might impair growth and service.
This is the first of several passages in the epistle which view
suffering as essentially fruitful and necessary. [Believer's SB]

The fact that we are called upon to endure trial shows that the
Lord Jesus sees in us something precious which He desires to develop.
If He saw in us nothing whereby He might glorify His name, He would
not spend time in refining us. He does not cast worthless stones
into His furnace. It is valuable ore that He refines. The blacksmith
puts the iron and steel into the fire that he may know what manner of
metal they are. The Lord allows His chosen ones to be placed in the
furnace of affliction to prove what temper they are of and whether they
can be fashioned for His work.
The potter takes the clay and molds it according to his will. He
kneads it and works it. He tears it apart and presses it together. He
wets it and then dries it. He lets it lie for a while without
touching it. When it is perfectly pliable, he continues the work of
making of it a vessel. He forms it into shape and on the wheel trims
and polishes it. He dries it in the sun and bakes it in the oven.
Thus it becomes a vessel fit for use. So the great Master Worker
desires to mold and fashion us. And as the clay is in the hands of the
potter, so are we to be in His hands. We are not to try to do the work
of the potter. Our part is to yield ourselves to be molded by the
Master Worker.  MH471,2

Faith untried may be true faith, but it is sure to be little
faith, and it is likely to remain dwarfish so long as it is without
trials. Faith never prospers so well as when all things are against her:
tempests are her trainers, and lightnings are her illuminators. When a
calm reigns on the sea, spread the sails as you will, the ship moves
not to its harbour; for on a slumbering ocean the keel sleeps too.
Let the winds rush howling forth, and let the waters lift up
themselves, then, though the vessel may rock, and her deck may be washed
with waves, and her mast may creak under the pressure of the full and
swelling sail, it is then that she makes headway towards her desired
haven. No flowers wear so lovely a blue as those which grow at the foot
of the frozen glacier; no stars gleam so brightly as those which
glisten in the polar sky; no water tastes so sweet as that which springs
amid the desert sand; and no faith is so precious as that which lives
and triumphs in adversity. Tried faith brings experience. You could
not have believed your own weakness had you not been compelled to
pass through the rivers; and you would never have known God's
strength had you not been supported amid the water-floods. Faith
increases in solidity, assurance, and intensity, the more it is exercised
with tribulation. Faith is precious, and its trial is precious too.
Let not this, however, discourage those who are young in faith.
You will have trials enough without seeking them: the full portion
will be measured out to you in due season. Meanwhile, if you cannot
yet claim the result of long experience, thank God for what grace
you have; praise him for that degree of holy confidence whereunto
you have attained: walk according to that rule, and you shall yet
have more and more of the blessing of God, till your faith shall
remove mountains and conquer impossibilities. [Morning and Evening by
Charles H. Spurgeon]