Scripture Thursday ~ Trials ~ Part 2

But he knows the way that I take;
when he has tried me,
I shall come out as gold.
Job 23:10

I’m continuing the subject of trials from last week’s Scripture Thursday devotion.
I was pleased to see so many of you share in the comments,
scripture that helped you through a trial. 

I have a mentor that I’ve never met, but she’s been a great encourager to me over the years.  Her name is Joni Eareckson Tada.  If you are not familiar with her, she has a huge ministry reaching out to those who are hurting in one way or another, especially people with disabilities.  What makes her remarkable is that she’s paralyzed from the neck down.  A diving accident in her teenage years left her confined to a wheelchair, unable to even use her arms.   

She said in a recent devotion:  God's ways are so much higher than ours; He has the capacity to look at the world through two lenses - through a narrow lens and a wide angle one. When God looks at a painful event through a narrow lens, He sees the tragedy for what it is. He is deeply grieved. In Ezekiel 18:32 he says, "I take no pleasure in the death of anyone." God feels the sting in His chest when a child dies of cancer or a husband is killed in an accident. However, when God looks at that same event through His wide angle lens, He sees the tragedy in relation to everything leading up to it, as well as flowing out from it. He sees a mosaic stretching into eternity - it is this mosaic with all its parts, both good and evil, which brings Him delight.

Have you ever heard of the expression, trial by fire, I think of it compared to today’s verse:

In its natural state, gold is mixed with other metals and impurities.  It goes through a refining process which begins with melting the ore down in a furnace heated to 1850 ºF.  This is the temperature at which gold melts.  The second process is the binding.  Once gold is molten, a special flux is mixed to make it more fluid and bind the impurities together.  When poured into a mold the impurities which are called slag rise to the top.Once the impurities are separated from the gold, the slag is then broken off.  The steps are often repeated many times for greater purity.  The process of refining gold has not changed for hundreds of years, technology hasn’t improved it. 

Just as gold, the furnace of affliction has a way of purifying Christians and making us more like Christ, by getting rid of the slag in our lives.  

These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire —may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
1 Peter 1:7 (niv)

God wants us to lay our burdens on Him and rest in His love.   It’s God’s responsibility to refine us and purify our lives.  Only our refusal to submit to his will can hinder this process in our lives.  God simply asks that we trust him.

Here are some of the "go to" scriptures left in last week’s comments.  Isaiah 40:31, Psalm 46:1-2, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, Romans 8:28, Philippians 4:4, Psalm 23:1-3. 

Thank you so much for stopping by and for all your comments.   It is my hope and prayer that you’d pick up a little encouragement here as you persevere through whatever trial you’re facing.

Last week’s Scripture Thursday ~ Perseverance Through Trials, Part 1

The scripture graphics in this post are free for you.  

This post is linked to:
This post is linked to: Word Art Wednesday, Women in the Word Wednesdays, Hearts 4 Home Thursday,  Proverbs 31 Thursdays, Monday Musings, Deep Roots at Home,