Comment: What St. Peter referred to as “fiery trial” is the wave of tribulations a true convert will experience in his personal life for identifying with the cause of truth and righteousness. These persecutions are from Satan the devil who is determined to frighten the believer and to make him run to strange gods for help. See 2 Kings 1:1-17.
Truly, the problems that afflict man today are many and varied, filling him with “labour and sorrow” such that it is even a miracle that people not only live up to the three score and ten years but also enjoy additional years of grace as stated in Psalm 90:10. In the words of the prophet Job, “Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not”. – Job 14:1,2.
Apart from the troubles people have to contend with daily, the devil who is “going to and fro in the earth, and … walking up and down in it”, (Job 1:7), targets the children of God to make things unbearable for them. One should stand firm and trust in God, Who “will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” – 1 Corinthians 10:13.