Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
1 Peter 1:5-7
Donna Barbour didn’t know she had a brain tumor when she went to the hospital. She was in the emergency room because a neighbor practicing archery had badly missed his target, and the arrow flew over the fence and hit her in the neck. The arrow lodged between her carotid artery and jugular vein—a fraction of an inch either way would have ended her life. Surgeons successfully removed the arrow, but the scans they took to determine the exact location also revealed the brain tumor. Barbour later wrote, “A few days later, I went in for a second opinion from another neurosurgeon. He said that it was a difficult surgery, but it had to be done. The tumor was about to cross the midline of my brain, which would have resulted in a massive stroke.” The tumor was successfully removed, and she made a full recovery.
All of us go through trials and tribulations in life. None of them take God by surprise. None of them are without purpose. Every trial gives us the opportunity to demonstrate the reality of our faith. Often we do not understand why something happens, either for some time or perhaps not at all in this life. Other times we can look back and see how God was working in ways we did not expect or fully grasp. But whether we see His purpose or not, we must never doubt that He is actively working in our lives to accomplish His design. We can fully trust our loving Father and thus show that our faith will stand even in the face of a fiery trial.
