R*****!

How joyful are those who fear the LORD—all who follow his ways! You will enjoy the fruit of your labor. How joyful and prosperous you will be! Your wife will be like a fruitful grapevine, flourishing within your home. Your children will be like vigorous young olive trees as they sit around your table. That is the LORD’s blessing for those who fear him. [Psalm 128.1-4]

What is the Lord's blessing for those who fear Him? Blessings:

• Joy
• Successful
• Happy married
• Blessed children

Where are the trials so many cling to as blessings form God? They are not listed! Why are they not listed? Because those who follow God's ways are exempt from trials! And, although persecution may come their way, they will be victorious - they will prevail.

I have chosen to simply let go of all the indoctrination I have experienced in my lifetime about God randomly sending trials upon those He loves as some sort of expression of His love and approval. 

Trials are refining fires, yes, but refining fires are meant to refine! To refine something means to remove impurities. Impurities are just that - impurities - not the good, desired end product. 

God definitely does not want impurities in our lives... but why? Because impurities are SIN!

So, if the fiery trials come our way, we should repent. When fiery trials come our way is not the time to "tie a knot in our rope and hang on" but the time to examine our lives and get right with God!

It would sure be easier just to accept fiery trials as no fault of our own though. Why? Because the reason for our fiery trials may not be easily seen at first - just like impurities in gold may lie deep within - only the heat of the fire will cause those impurities to surface so that they may be removed.

But, for us to declare our own innocence in the midst of a fiery trial is just really silly. God, Who is in control of everything, can see what lies within even if we can't. So, when the trial comes is not our time to confirm and approve of God's refinement, but the time for us to begin repenting because, even though we may not see it, the fire has been applied to remove it. 

God is not just randomly putting fire to us to see if we have impurities! He knows because He is God! For crying out loud, when we will finally get this?

The reason we don't get this is because we have yet to comprehend that God is good. We still hold the notion that cancer has the potential of being good. We still hold the erroneous idea that loss may hold blessings. We have these ideas because we are ignorant of Who God Is all the while the Bible declares Him and His character over and over and over! He is GOOD!

Look again at the scripture above - is there anything not good about everything listed? NO! Everything there is good and EASILY recognizable as good!

Why aren't fiery trials listed in the context of the scripture discussed here? Because fiery trials are not a blessing! Fiery trials are unnecessary for those who fear God!

The Psalmist understood this. Praise God!

Father, it just keeps coming up that we need to repent... Please forgive me for all the impurities buried deep within me - I know they are there because fiery trials prove it. Give me eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to understand what the impurities are in my life - I want to walk and live in Your obvious blessings!