Test

 For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried.
Psalm 66:10 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/psa.66.10.ESV

Naturally, we don't like being tested and tried. The illustration is of being refined like silver in a furnace. It's an intense experience.

Silver needs to be refined to get rid of the dross; for the scum to be skimmed off. Similarly, we need God to refine us to smooth off our rough edges. We need to be polished like precious stones.

The natural person assumes when they suffer that God is punishing them, or that He's bad. The spiritual person however knows that God can bring good out of bad, like salvation through Christ's crucifixion. The worst thing ever to happen- Jesus's murder- led to the greatest outcome: our justification before God.

Just because God has saved us in Christ, doesn't mean to say He doesn't need to refine us. Our salvation starts the moment we believe in Jesus. Yet it's not finally accomplished until we're united with Him in heaven.

'O God, thank You for Your testing of us. Hard though it is, we trust that You will make us precious as silver through Your work in our lives. In Christ's name, amen'

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