Fire

I will bring that group through the fire and make them pure, just as gold and silver are refined and purified by fire. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'These are my people,' and they will say, 'The Lord is our God.' --Zechariah 13:9

Life is not always easy. Sometimes we are so weary from our struggles that we feel like we can't handle any more. And then more comes. We cry out for relief, but it seems slow to arrive. This is not how we imagined life would be when we gave our lives to Christ. We thought we'd be blessed, yet we feel cursed. We think that if He is calling us His people then He should give us an easy life so that others will see how great it is to follow Him. Instead, God seems to be making life so uncomfortable that we have no choice but to rely on Him because our own limited resources are not enough to carry us through. This is not what we signed up for. In our language, a blessed life should translate into an easy life. In God's language, a blessed life translates into a holy life. We can't live holy lives while our souls are rife with impurities. So, since God is all-powerful, we ask Him to gently remove our impurities while we sleep. He refuses. We are His children, a people set apart for Him. He wants to strengthen us for His purposes as He purifies us, and strength is something that comes from testing and trial not from peaceful rest. Silver and gold aren't refined by a matter of will and neither are we. Just like these precious metals, God won't refine us without sticking us deep into the fire. Others see we are His not because we walk an easy road, but because we perservere on our way down the hard road and we come out better for it. Our joy is not based on easy living, it's based on hope and faith that endure and actually deepen through the pain. Like silver and gold, we are too precious to God for Him to keep us out of the fire.