Day 5: Hope and Fire!

How can we come into true understanding of our beliefs without testing, without temptation? We often think about that word as something evil and to be avoided, when really, we should have the opposite reaction, we should welcome it. This is not to say that we should seek out temptation or give into it, but rather conquer it! "Not to be tempted would be to be beneath contempt" (Chambers). Jesus was tempted. He knows the struggle. During our personal times of trial He helps and comforts us. To pass through the fire proves that we are genuine and continually growing towards likeness of Christ.

1 Peter 1:3-9...
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 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."