Part of the purification of the church, making His bride ready:
That He might present it to Himself a glorious church,
not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing;
but that it should be holy and without blemish. Ephesians 5:27
And I will bring the third part through the fire,
and will refine them as silver is refined,
and will try them as gold is tried:
they shall call on My name, and I will hear them:
I will say, It is My people:
and they shall say, The Lord is my God. Zechariah 13:9
Job responded to his wife’s foolishness:
Then said his wife unto him,
Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die. Job 2:9
But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God,
and shall we not receive evil?
In all this did not Job sin with his lips. Job 2:10
Be honest, lay it on the table for God to see
Of course, He already sees,
but our ability to pour out our flesh is a declaration to God,
reverence of Him that allows us to receive from His Spirit
whether it be good or seemingly not good
Others around you may not understand
God often gives us a glimpse of His hand in certain trials we go through
The Lord gave Job wisdom and understanding
of how and why he was suffering
Just because he knew it, didn’t mean he completely understood it
But He knoweth the way that I take:
when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. Job 23:10
God noticed Job
He esteemed Job
Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it,
they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness,
saith the Lord God. Ezekiel 14:14
God proclaimed the righteousness of these three men of scripture
whose faith was honored by God
We don’t completely understand
even though we might know the purpose of
why the Lord allows us to go through sufferings
He is the shepherd of our souls,
He knows best:
For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,
and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Hebrews 12:6
Even if we understand,
that often doesn’t help while we are in the thick of it,
while we are bearing our burdens
The good thing is, once the pain is over,
we can often see how the purification has benefitted us in our lives
and in our ability to serve our Maker
Some of the battles we encounter are strenuous and difficult
It is not easy to follow Jesus, to carry our crosses every day
Learning to depend upon Jesus more,
learning to trust Him more,
allowing Him to strip away those things in the natural
that weigh us down,
that keep us from being fully engulfed in The Kingdom of God,
purifying the flesh
That the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than of gold that perisheth,
though it be tried with fire,
might be found unto praise and honour and glory
at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 1 Peter 1:7
That is one thing Jesus will be looking for when He returns, faith
The fire of the Holy Spirit cleans out the dross
The more we welcome Him,
the more He takes over so we can be more pure
Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee. Song of Solomon 4:7