Fountains of Wisdom-A Study in Proverbs (Part 30)-Tested and Tried to Find Joy
This life with all of the trials, sorrows, pains, and joys is like a mystery being forever unveiled around us. We seek to find contentment, joy, hope amidst storms, tragedies and trials. Each detail of this life are fitted together like pieces of a puzzle creating, developing and forever changing who we are. The question then arises, Are we becoming more like Christ or are we becoming depressed and bitter with life? That is the question you and I each must ask of our own hearts.
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Our faith will be tried—that is a certainty. If it were never tried, then the beauty and glory of our salvation would be as nothing. A faith that is never tested is a meaningless faith.
To paraphrase Hebrews 11:1 “Faith is the absolute confidence that the promises of God that we hope in will come to pass and the absolute assurance that God is the Sovereign Creator of the Universe—even when our vision cannot see that.” And so we come to:
Proverbs 17(KJV) :3 The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the Lord trieth the hearts.
For Gold and Silver to be refined it is melted in a very hot furnace. Gold can then be shaped and made to take on any form as it melts. When complete it remains an object of shining beauty. The same is true of our hearts. So that impurities may be removed, we must have our faith tried through the fiery furnace so that God might reshape and mold us into objects of great beauty that look more like Christ each day. He knows that only then can we truly experience the joy that we were meant to have in Him. Only then can we understand and experience the love He has so displayed toward us. Could I truly comprehend and relish His love for me if I had never had my heart crushed or broken? Could I know that He is my greatest treasure if I had not felt despair from earth’s treasures? Or would I have been content with counterfeit joy? Peter knew this very fact and his faith had been tested and was going to be tested even more as he was killed for proclaiming the name of Christ. Yet, as he wrote—our salvation in Christ is our inexpressible and glorious joy is. We need nothing more.
1 Peter 1(NIV) 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
So, what fiery trial are you going through today? I urge you to do these three things.
1. Take a moment to look back at the cross of Jesus
2. Write down the promises of God to you.
3. Thank God for the trial; because you know and trust He has a plan of good for you in the midst of that trial. This may be half-hearted at first, but He will help you change that to real joy.
I may not like the trials at the moment; but, I thank God for not leaving me where I was. He called me, he saved me and he will be always about the work of refining me so that I might one day stand before him in glory and then I will understand it all.
Oh Lord, let me be willing to be "Broken and Spilled Out" for the Lord.
New International Version (NIV)
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© 2014 Effie Darlene Barba
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