Fiery Trials: Will They Make You Bitter Or Better?

(David:) Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. 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 honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”—1Pet.4:12; 1:7.

The Lord sometimes lets things happen that we don’t understand to test us and try us. He places us in the refining fires of His trials and testings to bring us to a boil, so all the scum and dross come to the surface and can be purged out. That’s what the fire’s for—to bring out the meanness in us and to get rid of it.

Suffering is God’s catalyst, God’s test tube. It either reveals that we have already got the grace to take it by faith, or it helps to turn us to grace and cause us to call upon God and to seek His mercy and His Love and His deliverance. Of course, in some cases, suffering can cause people who are rebellious and unyielded to the Lord to rebel all the more!

Suffering makes you either sweet or bitter, one or the other, one extreme or the other.—It’s up to you. It will either humble you or harden you.

You can often see this in older people. As the years pass by, people go one way or the other, there’s no standing still. They get more mellow and mild, soft and more tender, or they get harder, one or the other. My mother used to say that some old people are well-preserved, and others are just well-pickled!—They’ve gotten so sour and dour and miserable and unhappy.

The sorrow, the suffering, the sacrifice and sadness you go through will bring out the best in you—sweetness, compassion, love, tenderness, brokenness, love and concern for others—IF you love the Lord and turn to Him when you go through such trials. He says, “Let them that suffer according to the Will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.”—1Pet.4:19.