“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:6-7 NIV
In forty-five years of walking with Jesus, I’ve suffered grief in all kinds of trials. Losing our firstborn daughter in an automobile accident. A miscarriage. A severely handicapped son who is totally dependent upon others to meet all his needs. Alzheimer’s touching our lives twice. My own long list of chronic illnesses. None of these circumstances have been easy to walk through.
Yet God’s purposes are being accomplished in and through my life. As I look back over my life, even I can see how much my faith has grown. According to human logic, faith grows as we experience miracles and are blessed. But according to God’s reasoning, faith grows as it is refined by fire. It may not make sense to me, but I know it is true.
And as I reflect back on my life, I can only reach one conclusion. The more I’ve gone through, the more my faith and love for my Lord has grown. Lord, You are worth it all!
HOPE & LIGHT 
I love how God can work good things in even the most awful circumstances. You have a beautiful testimony of faith growing through trials. I agree, it doesn’t make sense from a human perspective, but it seems that is often how God works. I love the song you shared here too!
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God keeps taking me back to Proverbs 3:5 – just trust Him and don’t lean on our own understanding. His ways are not our ways, but His ways work if we’ll just believe He knows best.
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Amen!
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My heart of hearts empathizes with you. I miscarried twice and was bed rest for five months with the baby who was in-between. A four cm. fibroid tumor was vying for that baby’s life. She survived and has thrived. Justine is now 26. However, losing Jesse and Jordan (at 6 weeks) was devastating. Then my eldest daughter of four Little Women had numerous miscarriages and a son who died right before delivered. He was a Tri-Some 8 baby. Hard times….I am an incest survivor who repressed this until I could no longer–but it was almost 20 years into my marriage. Talk about needed inner healing. Then a simple whiplash (around the same time) was the straw that broke the camel’s back for physical problems coming forth via autoimmune and the like. Difficult road since 1996 in particular. Let’s say that God does not waste any of this pain and can use it all for His purposes and His glory. I’ve healed enough to understand and be good with it. I’m so glad I healed emotionally first or I don’t think I could have coped as well with everything else.
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Thanks for your comment, Julie. God definitely uses the things that touch our lives for our good and His glory. I remember reading a book many years ago by Paul Billheimer called Don’t Waste Your Sorrows. When we allow our sorrows to cause us to be bitter, that wastes our sorrows which God wants to use to do good things in our lives and in the lives of others who face similar circumstances.
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Amen and Amen Love the song “I’m Trading My Sorrows”. Sounds like a great book to read above, too.
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