Hope amidst my Trials!

 I don't know about you, but I sure do feel like I get reproved an awful lot by the Lord. Either that, or I have a overly sensitive conscience and do a lot of heart searching and feel more guilty than I should. But in all honesty, I think it's the other way around. (I think I'm more guilty than I feel and God's just been waking me up more and more to my true condition and need!) I have to admit that sometimes it gets pretty painful as the Lord keeps showing me all my faults and things that aren't in alignment with His Word. I want to say "Ouch, I've seen enough. Can we stop now?"

It can be easy to get discouraged and wonder if there is really hope for a sinner such as me. (Yep, I really do sometimes wonder this!) And yet as I have been reading about Peter the last few days, and reading in God's Word about how He chastens those that He loves, I'm encouraged…for we are told that Christ does not waste His time on refining worthless ore. What do I mean by this? 

Let me share the following:

"It is because God is leading them that these things come upon them. Trials and obstacles are the Lord’s chosen methods of discipline and His appointed conditions of success. He who reads the hearts of men knows their characters better than they themselves know them. He sees that some have powers and susceptibilities which, rightly directed, might be used in the advancement of His work. In His providence He brings these persons into different positions and varied circumstances that they may discover in their character the defects which have been concealed from their own knowledge. He gives them opportunity to correct these defects and to fit themselves for His service. Often He permits the fires of affliction to assail them that they may be purified.

The fact that we are called upon to endure trial shows that the Lord Jesus sees in us something precious which He desires to develop. If He saw in us nothing whereby He might glorify His name, He would not spend time in refining us. He does not castworthless stones into His furnace. It is valuable ore that He refines. The blacksmith puts the iron and steel into the fire that he may know what manner of metal they are. The Lord allows His chosen ones to be placed in the furnace of affliction to prove what temper they are of and whether they can be fashioned for His work." Ministry of Healing, p. 471

All I can say is, "Lord, when you have tried me, may I come forth as gold." Job 23:10

Review: 

• Bible Thought: To remember that the reason God allows trials in my life is to refine me!
• Blessing: That He loves me enough NOT to leave me the way that I am.
• Battles: To stay on the altar and not come down, even when the fire gets hot! (This battle never changes. We always have the choice to come down and take back our life. But God asks us to die…to die daily! So I pray that He gives me strength to…yes, to die!)