Has your family ever had a hard week?
Maybe something didn’t go the way you planned. A friendship felt rocky. A test didn’t go well. Something you were looking forward to fell through. Hard things have a way of showing up, even in the middle of good seasons.
Peter knew that. And he wrote something about it that might surprise you.
He said that hard things can actually be a gift.
Bible Focus
1 Peter 1:6-7 – “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Devotional Thoughts
Peter doesn’t tell us to pretend hard things aren’t hard. He doesn’t say “just be happy!” and move on. He says we can rejoice even in the hard things. That is a very different thing.
Why? Because God uses the hard stuff.
Think about gold for a second. Raw gold contains impurities. To get pure gold, you have to heat it so that the impurities rise to the surface and can be removed. What’s left is something beautiful and valuable.
Peter says our faith is like that gold.
When hard things come, our faith gets tested. And that testing, as uncomfortable as it is, is doing something real in us. It is showing us what we actually trust. It is burning off the things we don’t need. It is making our faith stronger and more genuine.
And here is the incredible thing: that kind of faith is more precious to God than gold. This is not a reason to go looking for trouble. But it is a reason not to be crushed by it. Your family can face hard seasons knowing that God is at work in them, not in spite of the difficulty, but through it.
That is worth rejoicing over.
Family Questions
What is something hard you are dealing with right now, or have dealt with recently?
What do you think it means that our faith is more valuable than gold?
How can knowing that God uses hard things change the way we feel when we go through them?
Prayer
Father, thank You that You do not waste the hard things in our lives. Help us trust You when things are difficult. Grow our faith through the trials we face, and remind us that You are at work even when we cannot see it. We want our faith to be real – not just when things are easy, but when things are hard too. Amen.
Take the Next Step
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Additional Resources
Chosen by God | 1 Peter 1:1–2 | 5-Minute Family Devotions
Family Discipleship: A Biblical Guide for Parents
Building a Realistic Family Bible Study Routine
Finish the School Year Strong as a Family
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