Transformation through God's Word

Many times people who have recently committed themselves to Christ are somewhat disillusioned when life seems to come all apart. they wonder 'Why, why is this happening to me? I pledged my life to God and now He has left me. I was better off before I made this commitment.'

I want you to know whether you are just checking God out, or you have recently pledged your life to God, or even if you have been a believer for a long time that God has a reason that you are going through these things. There is a purpose in the sufferings. The reason for the sufferings is to make us better, to make us like Him, to get the red out (like the visine commercial). The bible compares God to a refiner of precious metals who seeks to get the impurities out of the metal, leaving a pure substance.

'He will sit as a refiner and purifer of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness.' (Malachi 3:3)

First of all you might be wondering ‘who in the world is a Levite?’ Levites were one of twelve tribles of Israel. They were dedicated to God’s service. So, we in effect as Christ followers would be the Levites of today. But what does a refiner do?

What is this process of refinement?
The refiner puts the impure silver into the middle of the fire. Then he lets the heat drive out the impurities. The result is pure silver. The refiner must watch the silver and make sure he does not leave it in there too long. If the silver stays in the fire too long it will be destroyed. So the refiner pays close attention to how long the silver has been in there. The story goes that someone asked a refiner how long he leaves the silver in the fire. The answer was 'until I can see my image in it'. I don't know how long the refiner actually leaves the silver in there. What I do know is that like the refiner God puts us into the fire. What does that actually look like? He allows pain, suffering, trials and tragedies into our lives to get the impurities out. How does this happen? Well, it has been said that trial does not build character it reveals it.

Impurities Revealed
It is easy to act nice to people when we are not under pressure. It is easy to give others the benefit of the doubt, not fly off the handle, be gentle in our speech. It is not so easy when we are stressed out. What are some examples of stress? The big ones are when we lose a job, when someone finds out they have cancer, or when someone dies. What about the every day stressors of life? You come home from work after a long day just needing to unwind. You can picture yourself grabbing a glass of tea, or a beer and sitting down in front of the television. Then you get home and discover that your spouse has an appointment and you are responsible for watching the kids, right now. No chance to unwind. That will create stress. Stress comes when we make a mistake in the checkbook and are short on bills. Stress comes for those who are straight shooters but work for a boss who wants people to just agree. Ok, so now I know what my impurities look like, but what do I do with them?

Struggling with ourselves
When we are stressed we do things that are natural to us. If you like to gamble, what do you want to do when you are stressed? If you love to eat, what do you do when you are stressed. If you like to shop what you do want to do when you are stressed? You see, stress and trial they reveal our character they do not build it. So, when our impurities are revealed we have an opportunity to focus on them, and get rid of them. This 'struggle with ourselves' is called the sin nature. This describes how if left to ourselves we will always choose what is natural to us (and what we choose is rarely the right thing). We may have small victories here and there but we cannot kick this struggle with our sins on our own. We must discipline ourselves, we must work at doing the right thing. Paul talked about this when he spoke of training for a race or a boxing match (1 cor 9:24-27). We MUST have God's help to do this. God chooses to use this cycle of refining us. The cycle means that we will be in the fire for awhile, then He'll remove us, we'll be out for a while and then we are right back in there again. I bet some of you are thinking, 'ok, I understand where you are coming from, but I don't see the point in going through all this trouble. Why in the world would I chose an option that will guarantee me trials?'

Illustration in $Green$
Not too many of us work with precious metals. But most of us have jobs and have to deal with money. So, let us look at an illustration that might bring this home for you.

Let us say that you have a choice between $10k right now or enduring a year of hardship, a year of waiting and then you get $50M tax free. Now, there may be some of you financial folks who might talk about investments, interest rates, etc and you might go with the $10K. I am not a financial guru so I chose something that seems easy to me. Would I like $10K? Sure, but not if the other option is $50M 2 years from now I want the $50M. In this case you will definitely live to get the big money. You will not die before hand. So, which one do you choose? Most of us will choose the $50M right off the bat. Ok, we are willing to endure hardship for a year and waiting for another year (which in reality will seem like an eternity). But we like the idea of a $50M payoff.

We will all live forever, some where. The question is where? There are only 2 choices. Our lives here on earth, 100 years at best, though the average today is about 70 yrs. In comparison to forever, 100 years is nothing, nada. Though we would like to spend our time having fun, living for the weekends, vacations, or whatever it is that you want – that 100 years is nothing in comparison to forever. I think we would all agree with that. So, if I have to endure some pain and suffering along the way of the 100 years that is not so bad if the rest of forever I do not have worries, no crying, no sickness, no debt.

Summary
In summary we've answered the question 'Why do believers have to endure sufferings?' We know that it is part of the process God uses to make us perfect while we are on earth. It may not make you excited about your next trial but this should pose to encourage you that your sufferings are not for nothing. Now, on that note we are also encouraged to be joyful in the trials (james 1:2-4) and to remember that we have not suffered (as Christ did) to the point of shedding blood (heb 12:3-7). We are reminded that Christ suffered for us and that our sufferings are nothing compared to the sufferings that Jesus endured for us (1 peter 3:8-22)