“I will put this third into the fire and refine them as one refines silver and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’, and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God’ “. – Zechariah 13:9.
Life has a tendency of throwing challenges, blow by blow at our way. At my big age I am convinced we are in a constant battlefield until we leave this Earth and meet our Lord Jesus. Something must be bugging and poking us and distracting us somehow. I was laughing with a friend of mine last night about how we all have to go to military training to really understand the full armor in the flesh because yeiii it is war out here. I had a misconception that when you grow up rough then at least the adult hood will be a breeze, right? Now we are facing a pandemic. For some of us it is the Mjolo the pandemic hahaha and for some of us is losing their jobs to the real pandemic. At this point I think the world is tired of pain, disappointments, betrayals that come wrapped in this challenges and the gospel in the world (social media) is pursuing soft life. Soft life everything.
Lately pursuing a soft life is on trend, we want picture perfect marriages without struggles, any sign of conflict or rift in a relationship is an indication of toxicity, oh as the world calls it ; struggle love. We want jobs without toxic workplaces, we want nice bodies but we don’t want to work hard for them, we demand blessings without obedience. I saw a trending tweet recently that made me chuckle, “Tell the universe, you do not have to go through pain for you to learn something.” There are many similar chats that I have come across but in short, the world around me is tired of struggling, like they want everything soft, as they should Jesus promised us abundance (John 10:10) but did he promise us a life free of struggles and pain? No, instead so many times the bible warns about trouble and tribulations to come in our walk on Earth as children of God. James 1:12says, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”
Pain comes in a form of challenges (trials and tribulations). The one thing I know about pain is that, it demands to be felt and it digs deep. Pain comes with purpose. Hence heartbreaks will make one a motivational speaker or a blogger….(hahaha). I think pain refines us and purifies us like the opening scripture indicates. Fire refines Gold until its pure. For example certain problems in your marriage, friendships, workplace will not go away until pain deals with a certain character that God wants to uproot in you such as pride, selfishness, impatience. Hence God will allow certain things to happen to us for our own refinement. God also withholds certain blessings from us because he is working on certain characters in us. Pain unlocks a certain part of ourselves that need unpacking in order for us to learn something from that particular challenge. God has designed life meticulously, that when we are fully immersed in his presence, we are able to rest in knowing he is working everything in our favor and he is able to protect us during challenges until we have been refined. God knew between the promise and the fulfillment there is going to be challenges bearing pain and that we are going to be in need of the gift of endurance or long suffering (Galatians 5:25). How sovereign is our God? When God promises you that the two shall become one, He also knew becoming one flesh is definitely not a struggle free process. When the bible says iron sharpens iron, there is always a spark of fire in the sharpening but the bible does not mention that part.
The story of Shadrack, Meshack and Abdnigo being thrown in the fire of furnace is one for the books for me, about faith and challenges. I believe at some point when those men heard they are going to be thrown in a burning furnace, they prayed and cried, imagine in the last hour walking towards a roaring blazing fire, the doors of the furnace opening, at this point some of us our faith would have faulted. Like haaa aaah maaan, and then? Vhele it is happening? God where are you? The drama I would pull at the furnace door? But guess what? They walked into the fire and the miracle happened, they came out unscathed, because they were not alone. The long suffering for them was the walk into the furnace (the emotional and spiritual turmoil they endured). He could have saved them them before they went into the furnace but God wanted them to go into the furnace for the miracle to happen because he knew they will come out unscathed and his name will be glorified. In short the world today is saying in this scenario, God should have just erased the whole furnace situation, he could have found some one that will help them escape or better yet the King would have changed his mind about braai-ing them, it is through this miracle that the King believed that there is a God in heaven. Gods perfect plan. Even our Lord Jesus before his crucifixion he asked God if this cup pass from him but Gods will be done (Matthew 26:39). Gods perfect plan was bigger than the crucifixion, the resurrection it was for the salvation of his children, to defeat death and for his children to have an everlasting life. To populate heaven.
To answer the topic at hand today, I do not think God or Christianity glorifies struggle. The bible does say God does not test us (James1:13). We are spiritual beings and we are at war with the principalities (Ephesians 6) Although I think God allows certain struggles to happen in out lives to refine us for his glory. And he fights and protects us from certain struggles we d not know about. In a perfect world, a life without challenges would be nice but the bible I read warns me of challenges to come and encourages me that I have overcome. I am also consoled by the perfect everlasting life God has promised us, where pain and death will be no more. In the meantime hold fast, the colleague or boss that bullies you at work, deal with them at the feet of Jesus, the friend that betrayed you deal with it at the feet of Jesus and your struggling marriage deal with it at the feet of Jesus because its right there where we are protected, strengthened, refined and purified.
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