The Word - May 8, 2012 - TRIALS COME AND GO

"These trial you suffer, will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold, but your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world" (1 Peter 1:7-8a).

There are three ways we can take discipline: (1) We can take it "like a chicken, which droops when rain falls on it; and we can faint when we are rebuked by the Lord; or (2) we can take it like a duck and despise it, just let it roll off our backs with little concern; or (3) we can take it like a robin that lets the rain run off its back and is so exercised by it that it lifts its head to heaven and sings.

Just as the refiner sits over the fire to bring the gold to its purest form without ruining it, so the Lord sits over our lives and will not allow us to be tested above what we are able to bear. Faith says with Job, who was so sorely tried (far more than any of us ever know): "When I am tried, I shall come forth as gold."

The psalmist declares, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Your statutes." (Psalm 119:71). The very last verse of this 119 psalm is both a confession and a prayer: "I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I do not forget your commandments."

It came to pass-the cheerless night; It came to pass- the heavy care
The morning breaks with roseate light; That seemed beyond the strength to bear;
The sunbeams dance with sparkling dew; Till shared by One on yonder throne,
And bathe the earth with golden hue. Who bore the greatest burden known.

It came to pass- the tempest wild; It came to pass-the shattering blow
With nature calmed like sleeping child; Which taught the troubled heart to know
The billows cease to leap and roar; A deeper sense of God's great grace,
And gentle wavelets lap the shore. The rainbow in the storm to trace.

It came to pass-the sorrows deep;
The reddened eyes now cease to weep;
And underneath, God's loving arms
Now rest the soul and quell alarms.

"And it came to pass.....(Luke 20:1).