“Then I will test those survivors by giving them many troubles. The troubles will be like the fire a person uses to prove silver is pure. I will test them the way a person tests gold. Then they will call to me for help, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘You are my people.’ And they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.” Zachariah 13:9 ERV
Most of us don’t like to think that the troubles and trials in life can actually be beneficial to us. We’d much rather feed into the false belief that life should always be good and that when bad things happen to us God doesn’t care about us or we are being punished. But Zachariah is just one of many in the Scriptures that makes it clear that sometimes when we go through things it is to make us better and actually help us.
Perhaps we should think of our problems as rare Cambodian Sunset Rubies. Although they are red, they reflect the light with a prism of color. They are 50 times more rare than diamonds and there has been no significant find over 20 years. But a gemologist followed a lead to a fairly substantial find of raw gems. To the untrained eye they look like colorful worthless pieces of rock, but to the expert eye they are seen as valuable and precious. Their true beauty and value though doesn’t surface until after they are heated to temperatures of up to 2000 degrees by a special process. If too much heat is used too quickly or in a wrong way, these potentially priceless gems will shatter and become powder. When the heating process is applied properly they become some of the most beautiful gems you will ever see and go from worthless stones to a flawless one the size of a fingernail worth $250,000.
So often we see ourselves as ordinary and worthless. Our life isn’t turning out that way we planned. Instead of everything we touch turning to gold, it shatters and our dreams turn to dust. But God has an expert eye, He sees things in us that we don’t see in ourselves or by others. It may sound almost impossible or even crazy, but when we embrace our trials and troubles and give them to God and let Him use them in just the right way, He will turn that which wants to destroy us into something more beautiful, functional and priceless than we ever could imagine.
If you are going through a trial or crisis right now, take it to God and instead of asking Him to take it from you, that He would use it to change your life into something so amazing, you will know it could have only been God that made the changes. When we finally admit we can’t do this life on our own and we need the forgiveness and salvation of Jesus Christ He will come and meet you where you are, just cry out to Jesus. And just like today’s verse promises, He will answer you.
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