devotional - day 25

Isaiah 48:10-11 ...I have refined you in the furnace of suffering. I will rescue you for my own sake - yes, for my own sake! 

Glory. God’s glory. That is why he rescues us. And you aren’t you glad? I sure am. I have found that living for God and others is so much more rewarding, peace-filled, and pleasant than living for myself. But dang. It certainly took being in the “furnace of suffering” and being on fire for me to even begin to sincerely ask God for help. And then listen to him. For this is one of the primary ways he rescues. By guiding us. By comforting us. By filling us with his love. 

It was imperative that I listened to what God had to say instead of just shouting at him to “DO SOMETHING”. I’ve been in the “furnace of suffering” a couple of times. Each time led me to a greater, more intimate relationship with God. But I had to learn to listen. I’m a talker.  Listening isn’t my forté with humans, so applying it to God was equally hard. So I learned to listen. That was the first time in the “furnace of suffering”. The second time he decided I needed to be stuck back in the “furnace of suffering” was due to not doing what he told me to do. I heard him, I just ignored those particular instructions because they were areas in my life I wasn’t ready to submit to him. It would require me giving up attitudes and behaviors I had mistakenly come to believe were me. They weren’t the kindest or most healing of attitudes and behaviors and God had a different version of me in mind. Thus, being plopped back into the “furnace of suffering” for his sake. He wanted me to be committed to being his disciple as well as his child. Therefore he worked on me a bit more. 

So yes. That verse is full of truth! A hard truth because I so very much like having it be about me, but that’s not how God’s love works. That’s not how kingdom work evolves. It’s about loving others and having it be about them and God’s love for them. 

God’s glory. He’ll do whatever it takes to get our attention back on him. Even throw us into the “furnace of suffering” so he can refine us into better creatures full of discipleship. For his glory.