The Testing of Your Faith

[Christsfreeservant]

“In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:6-9 NASB1995)​

A Parable of Sorts

The Lord Jesus is giving me a physical illustration of this today, with a spiritual parallel, so this will be kind of like a parable of sorts. And here is the physical situation:

About two weeks ago I started having very sharp pains in my chest, on the left side, where a tumor has been located in my lung for the past 11 years. It had not grown in the first two years, so they never looked at it again. Nine years later it has now been discovered that the tumor is nearly doubled in size, and that the sharp pain in my chest is located in the exact location of the tumor. But I also have labored breathing and chest pressure, so it is under consideration that the tumor could be what is causing all of this.

A series of tests was ordered for me by my doctor, and yesterday I had my first test, which was a breathing test. I am breathing at 44% of 100% breathing capacity, and so the doctor diagnosed me with COPD, stage 3. But this was without considering the tumor and its role in my breathing issue. And today he wants to run a more vigorous breathing test, and I just realized last night that he wants to give me a drug in this process, but after I had already told him that I don’t take medications, so that has to change.

Next week I am lined up for 4 more tests including an MRI of my brain, an ultrasound of my thyroid, an ultrasound of my heart, and a PET scan of my entire body to check for cancer. All these involve some kind of electronic imaging or radio waves, and the last one involves them putting a radioactive tracer in my body to show up any potential areas of my body where cancer might be detected. I had this done 11 years ago, and I survived it then, so I pray I will survive it again, but 4 of these in a row might be quite rough.

The Spiritual Parallel

The passage of Scripture speaks of being distressed by various trials which test our faith to see whether or not it is genuine God honoring faith which will result in genuine biblical salvation from sin and eternal life with God.

So, here is the parallel. I have a particular set of symptoms that I am aware of, but without these tests I have no way of proving they exist so that they can be resolved. Yes, I know that my God is my healer, and he could choose to just heal me, but that is not the course he has decided on for me at this moment. And these tests will have an element of pain and risk involved in them, but they are necessary in order to discover what is really going on inside my body, in order to make a correct prognosis, in order to know the correct way in which to resolve these issues, all under God’s direction.

And this parallels over to what this passage is teaching. We need our faith to be tested so that we can see where we have issues that need to be resolved so that we can find the correct solutions (biblical solutions) and to put those into practice. For some people, although they profess faith in Christ, they are still walking in sin, in sinful addictions, and the only way they will ever be free of their addiction to sin is to go through a painful process of testing and examining what is in their hearts so that they can get victory over darkness.

And yes, that will be a painful process, but without the examinations which look closely at what is going on inside the person, and to identifying the problem (the cancer, the tumor, spiritually speaking), and to learning the correct path for getting the sin cancer removed from the heart, there will never be victory over sin and freedom from bondage. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person (see Luke 6:45; Matthew 15:17-20).

Masking The Sin

Now, going back to my situation for a moment. I just realized last night that the additional breathing test scheduled for today is intended to be followed by an unknown (to me) medication to see if that improves the breathing. Now, I have been pharmaceutical dependent free for 17 years, by the grace of God, and I made clear to them yesterday that I do not take medicines, for drugs can be harmful, especially since it is known that I have a lung tumor, and it can just mask the situation and then not really deal with the problem.

And this, sadly, is what is often being done on a spiritual level to solve sinful addictive practices, to mask over the problem and then to not really get to the root of what is causing the sin issue. And this might be done via the use of literal drugs (narcotics) or via psychology or false teachings and false gospel messages which give people a false hope of salvation from sin and of eternal life with God. And they do this via diluting the gospel to make it less offensive and more comfortable for the sinner to continue in deliberate sin.

But the only way to true biblical freedom from our slavery to sin is to do the heart examination, to see what is in our hearts which is preventing us from surrendering our lives to the Lord in walks of obedience to his commands, and then to follow God’s biblical instructions on what we must do to be free from our addiction to sin. And his only resolution is that we must, by God-gifted faith in the Lord Jesus, die with Christ to sin, and now follow him in obedience to his commands. We must repent of (turn away from) our sins and have a change of heart and mind resulting in a change of behavior.

For if we continue to hold on to whatever is stored in our hearts, i.e. that which is against God and his holiness, and which is leading us into sin, then we will never be free from our slavery to sin, and so we will not have salvation from sin nor eternal life with God. But if we let the Lord show us what is stored up in our hearts, and if we follow his solution for getting the evil out of our hearts, and so we repent of (turn from) our sins and we now obey our Lord and his commands, in practice, then we have life in Christ.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

As the Deer

By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

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The Testing of Your Faith
An Original Work / October 3, 2025
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