Refiner-Part 2-The God in the Fire
I want talk to you about where God is when we are amid the crucible of life…when the struggle is real, the burdens are large, and the end is nowhere in sight.
And the truth of the matter is that even when we don’t FEEL like God is there with us, He is there.
Let’s begin with this thought: God allows suffering. We don’t like to talk like this, because it tends to frighten people away from faith.
This is what we mean when we say God uses suffering in our lives. From our passage last week, we know that God uses suffering to help produce steadfastness in our lives. And we know from Romans 5 that:
…we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame…
But what you also need to know is that God will limit suffering. He will not give you more than you need, nor will He give you less. He knows just the right amount of pressure to exert on your stubborn heart to get it to crack so that He can empty you of yourself and fill you with Jesus.
But here’s the truth I want to share with you, friend. God doesn’t and will never waste your pain. He will always use it to accomplish what He deems best in you.
So, let me issue a challenge for you. Take some paper and cut it into strips. Then open your eyes throughout your day and see God at work. You might see Him in an answered prayer, a beautiful sunrise or sunset, a deed done for you, a word that you just needed. You may see Him in a still small voice that speaks to your soul. You may find Him in a Bible passage or a prayer. You may find Him on the internet on a video that you didn’t mean to click on or a picture that caught your attention.
And then, when you see Him, write it down on one of those strips of paper and put it in a jar. Keep that jar, and at the end of the month, go back over the strips and read what God has done for you that month. And as you revisit God’s work in your life that month, remember that He has never left you. Even in the midst of our struggles, trials, temptations, failures, inadequacies, and anything else we might want to add to this list, GOD IS WALKING WITH US!
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