Fiery Trials

Sometimes we find it hard to remember... not to fret or despair because of evildoers... but God, who is greater than he who is in the world, refines the hearts of His people just as a refiner of precious metals would refine gold or silver.

Gold in it's natural form is still gold, and he who finds it is glad, but although valuable, it is useless until refined.

Quartz, the rock wherein gold is usually found, is an attractive stone, and a chunk of quartz with flakes of gold in it is a beautiful stone, but just that. A beautiful stone. It is not useful. A good person, unrefined by God, is just that - a good person. Something we love to see, something valuable, but useless to God's heavenly kingdom

The refiner must first crush the rock and then separate the gold from the quartz, must melt the gold in a furnace and then skim the impurities or "dross" from the surface of the molten gold before he has a substance that is useful.

We too must be crushed and subjected to "fiery trials" to have the impurities of our selfish human nature removed. Most often the fiery trials period lasts all our lives, coming upon us from time to time, but with every trial "God provides a way of escape".

The best escape is to submit our will to Him and rejoice, as the apostles did (rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to share in His sufferings) and thereby we can share in His glory. And although our trifold enemy, (the world, the flesh, and the devil) will tell us differently, this refining process is also one of the greatest things we have to rejoice over! It is our proof of God's love for us, proof of the "gold" in us, proof that we will be with him if we endure until the end!

If you are being, or have been tested, REJOICE!

D. Schupbach