Tried and purified

For You, O God, have tested us;
You have refined us as silver is refined. – Psalm 66.10

I don’t think any of us like trails or tests. I don’t. We have been through a few of them over the last few years. You would think I might be used to it my now – but every time it happens my heart still sinks.

Now it is Beth’s cancer. She’s my only little girl. It never gets any easier getting news that your children are sick – no matter how old they get. This is going to be quite a struggle for all of us and I think I would rather do anything than watch my Beth face cancer.

But tests are part of life. No matter how much we might wish otherwise they are going to happen.

Being tried and tested can destroy us. However they can also help make us. David said that the tests that come can, like the fires mentioned above refine and purify us like silver. Paul wrote about how when he is tried and purified he would come forth like pure gold.

I can’t see the good in Beth’s cancer. I see a lovely 32 year old woman with a husband and three young children facing a year of sickness and surgery and hard days.

But then I think of women who have come through the same. I see strong women who became stronger because of their fight.

God can work in all of our tests and trials. It is up to us to rely on Him and learn the lessons. The other alternative is to be destroyed by them.