Be Still And Know

1 Peter 1:6-7 NLT    'So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold – though your faith is far more precious than mere gold.'     If Peter is to be believed, all earthly trials are a means of testing our faith that it might grow deeper roots into its source, God alone. It’s not that the storms are imaginary. Nor will some powerful prayer instantly deliver us from the raging storm surrounding us. I have cared for a loved one through a degenerative neurological condition, eventually holding her hand as she passed into her eternal joy. One thing I did observe was that as her physical strength waned, her spiritual fortitude increased. The base mortal form that had housed her divine essence was transformed into the priceless gold of resilient and enduring faith.    Fire will burn, yet will also purify. Despondency may well be both the sign and the sourc