Our scripture for the Daily Devotional today is taken from Proverbs 17: 1-10. I said, “If ever there is a time you need God, it is now. Do not cut off the only one who can help you and your family out of this devastation.” This was a time of intense testing. Believe me, the fire was hot. People assume things. People talk. Reputations are ruined.
Better a dry crust with peace and quiet
than a house full of feasting, with strife.
2 A prudent servant will rule over a disgraceful son
and will share the inheritance as one of the family.
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3 The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold,
but the Lord tests the heart.
4 A wicked person listens to deceitful lips;
a liar pays attention to a destructive tongue.
5 Whoever mocks the poor shows contempt for their Maker;
whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished.
6 Children’s children are a crown to the aged,
and parents are the pride of their children.
7 Eloquent lips are unsuited to a godless fool—
how much worse lying lips to a ruler!
8 A bribe is seen as a charm by the one who gives it;
they think success will come at every turn.
9 Whoever would foster love covers over an offense,
but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.
10 A rebuke impresses a discerning person
more than a hundred lashes a fool.
A number of years ago, I was experiencing a day like any other day, doing some computer work. A woman who I had been teaching in one of my Bible classes called. Her husband had been arrested and accused of atrocious acts. She screamed over the phone, “If God lets this happen, I will never serve or honor Him again. What God would allow something like this to happen when we have been serving Him?” This woman loved the Lord, but her life was falling apart and there was nothing she could do.
Why would God allow a family to go through such a difficult time?
Like with Job, like with Peter, like with the Israelites, God wanted them to know what was in their own hearts. He will test our faith. He will throw it up in the air with the chaff and see what is left on the ground and what blows away with the wind.
This was a perfect example of a refiner’s fire.
It was a time when God was using this family as an instrument of His glory. It was a time to examine what decisions they would make in the midst of tremendous injustices.
Will you praise Him in the pit?
Will you love Him when all has been stripped away?
Will you love Him when life didn’t turn out the way you wanted it to turn out?
What would you do if God chose to not give you the answers you wanted, the healing you’ve prayed for, the salvation of that wayward child, the restoration of a terrible marriage? What would you do?
Memory and Meditation:
For You have tried us, O God; You have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net; You laid an oppressive burden upon our loins. You made men ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water, Yet You brought us out into a place of abundance (Ps 66:10-12 NASB).
Let’s Pray
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for loving me. Please help me to understand that you love me even when bad things are happening to me. Help me to love you even when my prayers are not being answered the way I want them to. Help me God to love you with my last breath.
In Jesus’ name, Amen
Robin Bertram is an author, speaker, ordained minister, and the executive producer and former host of the nationally and internationally syndicated television show, Freedom Today. She has been a leader of media leaders for 15 years and has placed several Christian programs onto the national and international stage. She is the author of No Regrets how loving deeply and living passionately can impact your legacy forever (Charisma House Publishing) and Hidden Treasures (Abingdon Press).