Forged in Fire

God has great plans for us, but life has no shortage of difficulties.

God uses the trials we experience to refine our character and make us more like Jesus. There is purpose in our pain, and knowing this purpose gives us hope, which enables us to persevere in difficulty. 

The purpose of our pain is to conform and transform us into Christ’s image.

The best version of us is the one that looks most like Jesus.

What appears to be a setback is actually a setup for fulfilling our destiny—living in all that Jesus’ resurrection provides as well as completing our individual calling. 

Trials cause the roots of our faith to grow deeper. Though it’s not always pleasant, faith often needs the soil of suffering to grow. It’s in the valley of the shadow that we find out what we really believe. Our faith is refined and established in the fires of life.

Faith is not genuine unless it gets tested.

1 Peter 1:7

“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.”

If we endure to the end, we will come out like pure gold, reflecting the nature of Christ. We must be a people forged in fire if we are to fulfill the destiny God has planned for us. We are purified in the furnace of affliction.

A key that helps me unlock more endurance in life’s trials and confidence in God’s goodness, faithfulness and love in the middle of the heartache.

The key is found in 2 Corinthians 12 where the apostle Paul cries out to God to remove the “thorn in his flesh”, which was the suffering he was experiencing. God responds not by removing it, but rather with a perspective shifting statement.

2 Corinthians 12:9

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Wow! This revelation is a total game-changer.

Paul then goes onto say that he will boast all the more in his weaknesses, for then Christ’s power will rest on him. Weakness is an avenue for God’s strength to be revealed and made manifest. When we are weak, we are truly strong. His grace—free gift of power—is the way to successfully endure trials.

James 4:6

“But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: ‘God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.’”

God gives grace (power) to the humble. Let’s be humble enough to admit that we need God’s grace.