By Pastor Lawrence Jackson

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you.
I Peter 4:12 KJV

When suffering come most of us react as if it were something strange. That is, think it unlike anything that has been suffered before. Others have gone through the same thing you’re going through.
When Paul was chosen as an apostle, the Lord said, “…I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake” (Acts 9:16 KJV).
Suffering is not something which is accidental; It is the normal Christian experience. Peter says, “Don’t think its strange, because this is the normal experience of believers.
David spoke of the fact that God’s testing of him was like putting silver into a furnace to purify it. Peter has now mentioned this fiery trial. He had personally endured suffering, and he was yet to die a martyr’s death. The writer of this poem describes well the experience of a believer.

 
Out from the mine and the darkness
Out from the damp and the mold,
Out from the fiery furnace,
Cometh each grain of gold.
Crushed into atoms and leveled
Down to the humblest dust
With never a heart to pity,
With never a hand to trust.

Molten and hammered and beaten
Seemeth it ne’er to be done.
Oh, for such fiery trial,
What hath the poor gold done?
Oh, twere a mercy to leave it
Down in the damp and the mold.
If this is the glory of living
Then better to be dross than gold.

Under the press and the roller,
Into the jaws of the mint.
Stamped with the emblem of freedom,
With never a joy, the refining,
Out of this damp and the mold
And stamped with the glorious image
Oh, beautiful coin of Gold.
“In the Crucible”
__Author Unknown

God has a purpose in our suffering. Suffering prepares us for the coming of Christ. I think we need to face up to the fact that thee is no shortcut to living the Christian life. The Christian life is not a banquet. We are to suffer for Him and with Him. And we will know the reason for each testing when we stand in His presence someday.

Rev. Lawrence Jackson
Is The Pastor Of Growing In The Word Ministries
71405 Highway 51,Kentwood,La 70444

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