Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth, therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty. Job 5:17.
Many of your afflictions have been visited upon you in the wisdom of God, to bring you closer to the throne of grace. He softens and subdues His children by sorrows and trials. This world is God’s work-shop, where He fashions us for the courts of Heaven. He uses the planing-knife upon our quivering hearts until the roughness and irregularities are removed, and we are fitted for our proper places in the heavenly building. Through tribulation and distress, the Christian becomes purified and strengthened, and develops a character after the model that Christ has given.—Testimonies for the Church 4:143.
The fact that we are called upon to endure trial shows that the Lord Jesus sees in us something precious, which He desires to develop. If He saw in us nothing whereby He might glorify His name, He would not spend time in refining us. He does not cast worthless stones into His furnace. It is valuable ore that He refines.—The Ministry of Healing, 471.
“Ah, happy he whom God is chastening!
Spurn not the discipline of the Almighty;
He binds up where He wounds.
He hurts and heals.”
Job 5:17, Moffatt.
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