Gospel Reflections #837: Yet God grants us such profound peace

Proverbs 17:3 "As silver is tested in the crucible and gold in the furnace, so the Lord tests the heart."

A crucible is needed to melt silver, a furnace is needed to melt gold, and the Lord is needed to probe and melt our hearts.

Proverbs 16:2 says something similar: "A person may think all their actions are pure, but the Lord weighs the soul's worth."

Through trials, the true value of our faith is revealed.

The true value of our faith, given by God, is not revealed through worldly success, a wealthy life, or getting everything we desire. It is revealed through how honest, humble, devoted, and surrendered to God we are.

Through trials, God exposes our true, ugly selves.

We have hidden it all along, but to build a relationship with God, we must cast it off.

We cannot cut away our own ugly parts ourselves. Only when God makes us aware of them and stirs within us, through the Holy Spirit, the desire to cast them off, can we finally confess to God and pray.

God does not remove our trials once we confess. But He does free us from the constant fear of being discovered, from the life we lived hiding it all along.

This liberation requires courage and endurance, yet God grants us such profound peace that we completely forget those struggles.

God tests our hearts to make us aware of the sin within us and to provide the opportunity to let it go.

God does not stop at merely testing our hearts; He melts our stubbornness and reshapes us into His likeness.

AUTHOR'S BIO: This Gospel Reflections page is written by Masae San, who resides in Hiroshima, Japan. Masae is a dedicated student of the Bible with a deep passion for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She shares her daily reflections on Gospel perspectives to reach out to others and spread the message of God's true love through a Christ-centered approach. We are sharing her insights here so that you, too, can experience the joy that comes from knowing and understanding the true Gospel and the love of God through Jesus Christ.