March 5

“To refine something does not mean to punish it, but only to purify it, to get rid of all its dross and rubbish and bring out its full beauty and worth....Instead of its being something God demands of us, it really is something we ought to demand of God....He created us, and we have a right to demand that He make us the best He can.  It is His duty to burn up our dross and bring out our full beauty and worth.  Love demands that He should.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, God is Enough, 3/5

This certainly causes me to look at my “sufferings”, as I’ve been wont to call them, in a different light.  I’m familiar with the verses in Scripture that speak of being refined as a good thing, but I never thought I should demand to be refined.  It always felt like something I had to go through against my will even though I knew in the end it would be good for me.  

I’m writing my grandfather’s life story for my Family History narrative and have made an outline of his diaries. One of his first diary entries in 1905 concerns how much he hated the idea of being at college for the next nine months because it was all work and no fun.  However, he added, it was for his good.  How much better if we would look at life’s lessons as something to desire so that we will become all that we were created to be.

“Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ....More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.”  Romans 5: 1, 3-5