TRIED AND PURIFIED

"For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried." (Psalm 66:10)

One of the certainties of our relationship with God is that our confidence in Him will be tested, tried and purified. God’s love for His children means that He also wants us to be purified. This will require trying and testing.

The symbolism of our reflection passage is very interesting. Silver, an impressive shinny precious metal starts out as a lump of earth mixed with traces of silver ore. But soon it goes through a fiery refining process and from the other end emerges a precious metal.

The adversities, obstacles and challenges you face in life are the furnace of life in which you are being tried and tested, and the contaminants removed just as silver is tried and purified in the furnace of fire to extract that spotless piece of valuable metal with a sheen that can never be tarnished. 

It is never comfortable when we face these oppositions, but they bring out the best in us. And we are able to bear whatever God allows us to go through (1 Cor 10:13). By going through the things we go through in life, with the help of the Holy Spirit and with the light of the word, we discover more about what God has put in us (who we are in Christ) and appreciate more the steadfastness of God's love toward us (Psalm 31:7).

What we learn is clear: the gem of your life will be forged in the furnace of adversity, but you will not go through it alone. The Lord Jesus who is touched with the feelings of our infirmity will go through the fire with you (Heb 4:15; Isa 43:2)! Endure the process...the Lord will bring you out to a place of abundance!

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