|
"TOUGH TIMES "
Tough times come to all at one time or another. Tough times come in different ways to every individual. And there is something very hard to believe when we're in the middle of tough times: they have a positive purpose.
"For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver." Psalm 66:10 (NIV).
I have tried to wrap my mind around the idea of tough times having a refining purpose, but have often made no sense out of it. Then, as time moved on, and I was able to look back, it began to seem like I might have benefited from the experience.
Rick Ezell, who writes the "One Minute" blog, says, "Standing beneath the giant sequoias in King's Canyon National Park , the forest ranger guide told the tour group that fire is necessary for the growth and reproduction of those magnificent trees, the largest and oldest living things on planet earth. It seems that at one time, the U.S. Forest Service had carefully guarded them from naturally occurring, lightening-caused forest fires, only to discover that the trees were not thriving and that no new trees were developing. They came to the conclusion that without periodic fires to burn away the underbrush, the trees would fail to reproduce. It takes the intense heat of a roaring fire to open the seed cones, and the ashes contain just the right mineral mixture on which the trees thrive!
"So it is with Christ's followers. Without the intense heat of fire (tough times), we will not thrive and grow and reproduce. Like innocent children, we think the fire will hurt. And, at times, it just might. We attempt to avoid the crisis of God's purifying fire. But like the forest of sequoias, the fire is needed. It is through this outpouring of cleansing that we feel God's love, we experience God's grace, and know God's comfort. To live without these manifold provisions, is to limp through life with a deformed character unable to reach the heights for which we were destined and designed.
"Like the forest rangers, we need to allow God's cleansing fire to periodically occur."
Knowing this doesn't take away the pain of tough times. It does remind me that nothing happens to God's children without a long-term purpose for their good. God excels in turning tough times into good times. Let's trust as the fires burn!
--Pastor Ivan Blake, October 27, 2007
|
|
Download 