God Refines Us Like Gold

Gwen and I recently spoke to a godly woman who has reached the end of her endurance. This woman’s family has seen incredible suffering. She has spent endless hours praying and calling on the Lord.

Month after month, things do not change. Just when she sees a ray of hope, things become even worse. She hears a message or reads something that inspires her faith, and she tries to soldier on; but now she is worn out. She can hardly sleep. She is beyond asking why there is so much suffering. Now she is simply hoping to see a light at the end of her dark tunnel.

She told us, “I have come to the place where I feel I have the right to give up. I have believed; I have sought him; I have been faithful in church and reading his Word. Yet I see no relief. I feel alone and helpless. Now I have to fight this thought: ‘I have a right to feel as I do because I see no end to my suffering.’”

We are praying diligently for her and her family. We believe she will not faint in the battle and that the Lord will send her help, but what she has said in her despair truly touches something deep inside my soul. Many godly believers have come to the same place of hopelessness. In sorrow, they also cry, “I have a right to quit the fight. I have a right to be angry. When will he answer me? Has the Lord passed me by?”

In Job’s despair, he said, “He breaks me down on every side, and I am gone; my hope he has uprooted like a tree. He…counts me as one of his enemies” (Job 19:10-11, NKJV). Does any of this sound familiar to you? Is this your battle? Is it the struggle of someone you know? Beloved, God is merciful. Job came out of his trial to a place of hope, and so will you.

May this godly man’s words be our own: “I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive him; when he works on the left hand, I cannot behold him; when he turns to the right hand, I cannot see him. But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:8-10).