There Is PURPOSE In Your Suffering

"For a mere moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercies I will gather you. With a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer." Isaiah 54:7-8 Are you in pain? Are you asking God "why?" First of all, rarely will God tell you why an affliction of any kind has come upon you until much later when you look back - then you'll understand. But while you're going through it, don't ask because he usually won't answer that question. Be willing to endure without explanation, for now. This is the kind of faith the Lord is looking for. Trials test us. It is only in trials that we realize what's really in our hearts. Still, we say things we never thought we'd say, we try to change the situation rather than letting God have his way. The trial of faith is a totally necessary process for a believer walking with the Lord. In fact, Jesus COUNSELED us, commanded us, to acquire from him that precious gold, that precious gold tried in the fires of suffering. "I COUNSEL YOU to buy from me, gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich..." Revelation 3:18 When gold ore is purified, it is put into a vat and heated up to a very high temperature. This causes the dross to rise to the top where it's skimmed off. Then the process is repeated at an even higher temperature, to bring up all the remaining dross so it can be skimmed off. After all the dross has been removed, what remains is pure gold. And so it is with our trials, there is purpose in them. God causes the dross in us to come to the surface so that it can be skimmed off, until what is left is pure gold. The gold that remains is precious. I know a woman to whom the Lord said, "the trial of your faith is more precious than gold TO ME!" Do not seek to escape it. Let the process work out the will of God for you, for the process is precious. "...you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, you love." 1 Peter 1:6-8 Friends, only in suffering will we be perfected, but always remember that what you are experiencing will always be very hard to understand - yet it is vital. You have been privileged to join in "the fellowship of Christ's suffering..." "...that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, AND THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS, being conformed to his death..." We who are "conformed to his death" will also be conformed to his resurrection! The suffering is only for a time. The glory to come afterward is beyond what words could express, and you will be brought into a place of faith and joy that will astonish you. "But may the God of all grace, who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, AFTER YOU HAVE SUFFERED A WHILE, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you." 1 Peter 5:10 Hang in there, sufferer, there truly IS light at the end of the tunnel. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning." Psalm 30:5