Morning, November 12, edited from Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

“The proof [trial, KJV] of your faith.” — 1 Peter 1:7

Faith untried may be true faith, but it is sure to be little faith, and faith is likely to remain dwarfish so long as it is without trials. Faith never prospers so well as when all things are against her: tempests train her, and lightning illuminates her. When a calm reigns on the sea, spread the sails as you will; the ship will not move towards its harbor; for on a slumbering ocean the keel sleeps too. But, let the winds begin rushing and howling, and let the waters begin to stir themselves up, then — though the vessel may rock, her deck may be washed with waves, and her mast may creak under the pressure of the full and swelling sail — it is then that she makes headway towards her desired port. No flowers wear so lovely a blue as those which grow at the foot of the frozen glacier; no stars gleam so brightly as those which glisten in the polar sky; no water tastes so sweet as that which springs amid the desert sand; and no faith is so precious as that which lives and triumphs in adversity. Tried faith brings experience. You could not have believed your own weakness had you not been compelled to pass through the rivers; and you would never have known God’s strength had you not been supported amid the flood waters. Faith increases in solidity, assurance, and intensity, the more it is worked out with tribulation. Faith is precious, and its trial is precious too.

Do not let this, however, discourage those who are young in faith. You will have trials enough without seeking them: the full portion will be measured out to you in due season. Meanwhile, if you cannot yet claim the result of long experience, thank God for what grace you have; praise him for that degree of godly confidence in which you have attained: walk according to that rule, and you shall yet have more and more of the blessing of God, until your faith shall remove mountains and conquer impossibilities.