We are all "works in progress"

1 Peter 1: 3-9 The Message:

What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you'll have it all—life healed and whole. I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. 

Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it's your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory. You never saw him, yet you love him. You still don't see him, yet you trust him—with laughter and singing. Because you kept on believing, you'll get what you're looking forward to: total salvation.

We are all works in progress- moving from something that is less than true and real toward something that is deep, alive, genuine and pure-- TRUE faith in the one Lord Jesus Christ.  Every aspect of life, whether we like what's happening or not, is used by God to refine us like gold refined by a fire.  I'm not telling you that God causes things to happen just to test you, simply that testing comes on its own.  Life happens.  Aggravations abound!  Irritants are everywhere!  But, God desires nothing less than for us to come to him with our deepest felt needs (Luther on the Lord's prayer).  Each and every circumstance that is put before us, on us or around us is an opportunity for God to show himself to us in ways that we have yet to imagine.  God is with us through it all and he will guide us, strengthen us and lead us to a deeper life in Christ Jesus.  

I know that some of you are really dealing with a lot right now.  Stuff is piling on like a bunch of linebackers making the all important defensive tackle!  But Christ is in the pile with you.  He doesn't pile on. . . he is underneath all of that force and impact and dead weight that has been hurled upon your vulnerable body and soul.  The result will be a purer faith-- that's not my opinion--- that's the promise!

Martin Luther, speaking of this passage in 1 Peter writes, "Fire does not impair the quality of gold, but purifies it, so that all alloy is removed.  Thus God has imposed the cross on all Christians to cleanse and purge them well, in order that faith may remain pure, just as the Word is, so that one adheres to the Word alone and relies on nothing else."  (LW 30:17)

As those who are in the process of being purified like gold that is refined by heat and fire, so we are on a journey of discipleship that draws us ever closer to the source of all that is good.

We can never become completely refined or pure, says Luther, but it is part of the process of our Christian life to "improve constantly and to become purer" than we are at this moment.  This is not done by our own will or our own work. . . if we could do it for ourselves we would do it, now wouldn't we?  But instead, in faith, we trust that God is up to something in our lives even amidst the pain and suffering, the testing and temptation.  He gives us moments of pure joy and glimpses of the eternal to keep us going. 

 One day we wake up and say to ourselves, "Wow, how did I make it through that?  Ten, five, even two years ago I would have never been able to hold on to my faith if that happened to me back then!"  It's like a child whose parents can't see the growth in them because they are with him every day but others who haven't seen him for awhile say, "My how you've grown!!"   

When you get down on yourself, take a look back a few years and see how much progress you've made in your Christian walk-- or I should say-- how much progress Christ has made in you over the years!  Thanks be to God!!

Image credit: southcountry.org