Fiery Trials

"...don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through... Instead, be very glad-for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world. " 1 Peter 4:12-13, NLT






This is what I think of when I read of fiery trials.

Not a pretty picture!

I started digging deeper on the use and writing about fire in the Bible.

When it came to the spiritual use of fire, the writers usually attributed fire to God. Yahweh manifested Himself in various forms of fire on many different occasions.

The making of the Covenant with Abraham (Gen. 15:17);

The burning bush (Exo. 3:2-4);

The pillar of fire (Exo. 13:21);

The fire on Sinai (Exo.19:18);

The flame on the altar (Judg. 13:20)

The answering of Yahweh by fire (1 Kings 18:24, 38).

I found it surprising that fire plays such a significant role in the Bible. The Creator Himself is described as a "consuming fire." (Dan. 4:24; Heb. 12:29) Doesn’t it seem rather strange to our understanding to call the Creator a consuming fire? We rarely associate fire with the creation process. We usually associate it with destruction.

Fire is never static.

It moves.

It seeks to consume.

Fire always produces change. It will force one to act, to respond. Fire brings focus. "Fiery" trials often let us know which kind of fire is burning in in us.


The fiery trials are designed for refining me so I might be made more pure as I seek the will of God.

Dear Lord, move me to your Love!

Focus me upward!

Let my sight be guided by your Spirit!

Cause me to be moved by your compassion and your desires!

Raise me up up that I would see with the mind of Christ!

Through your fiery love break me free from the bondage of corruption, and the foothold of sin, that I might truly become:

your praise;

your presence;

your glory;

your light.

and your love on the Adventure in Middle Grove.