Are You for Real?

I have something to show you. It is really beautiful. Just look at it sparkle! When I first saw it, do you know what I thought it was? I thought it was gold! I later found out that it is actually something called iron pyrite and, unlike gold, it is not worth very much at all. Well, it really fooled me, but I'm not the only one who has been fooled into thinking iron pyrite was gold. In fact, so many have been fooled by it that it is often called "fool's gold." Actually it is easy for people who see shiny golden colored flakes sparkling at them from some rock they just picked up to believe that they have found gold. After all, it looks like gold. One way to find out if this is real gold or fool's gold is to give it the test of fire. When real gold is heated, it will not react to the heat, but when fool's gold is heated, it will smoke and produce a bad odor.

Did you know that a lot of people are like this fool's gold? They claim to love Jesus and to be His children. They can often be found in church and they fool a lot of people into thinking that they are really followers of Jesus. One way you can tell if a person is a real follower of Jesus is by the test of fire. It is easy to be a follower of Jesus when everything is going good, but when life starts to heat up and trouble comes your way how do you react? Do you trust and obey God's word, or do you become angry and start to smoke and put off a bad odor like this fool's gold? The bible says "the fire will test the quality of each man's work." It also says that if we listen to His word and don't do what it says, we just fool ourselves. We may fool others and we may fool ourselves, but we can't fool God. Are we for real, or are we just "fool's gold?"

Jesus, help us to be true to your word. When the test of fire comes our way, may our work be found to be true.