Encouragement from a friend..

A friend of mine posted this today on her blog. I really hit home with me and I felt the need to share. Thank you friend for the reminder and for the encouragement.

My heart has been so heavy the last few days. So many people are losing their jobs, homes and their life savings for retirement. i keep going back to the simple yet profound truth that "God is still on the throne!" Although this is black and white and should be so simple to remember, I am struggling. I was heading to my doctor today and was listening to Chuck Smith Sr. on Kwave. What a GREAT message he had for us. He was talking about troubles and hard times and how they are inevitable. God never promised us a life without trouble or pain. He does promise us that He is always with us. Pastor Chuck then went on to share how God is refereed to as "fire" several times in the bible. Fire as we know it can be so destructive, it can consume and destroy...leaving ashes behind. Fire on the other hand can also be a refiner. Look at what happens when gold is put in the fire and how when you heat it the impurities disappear leaving a pure gold behind. So, those are our choices....are we going to let the fire consume us and destroy us or are we going to let it refine us, transform us into something pure and beautiful? This is a questions that changed my outlook today. The devastation is still there, but my perspective has changed and I am looking for ways that this fire in our economy can refine me. Let us not forget though that we must hold each other in prayer during these times as sometimes there is pain during the refinement.