Being refined.

This week has been hard. I took the first dose of methotrexate on Tuesday afternoon and by the evening the nausea kicked in and continued until Thursday evening. In the end I gave up eating for a while as that stopped the sickness! Thankfully by Thursday evening I was feeling better and was able to go to book club. This is such a wonderful group of ladies and I love spending time with them. By Friday I was much better and managed to do the flowers at church, go shopping and host bible study. Today I have re -made the Christmas cake after a bit of a disaster with the first one. I am now back in bed having taken today's dose of methotrexate and we will see how I get on.

In bible study we are looking at 1Peter and I think we were all challenged by the idea that trails and sufferings are part of God's refining. 

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1Peter1 v 6-7.

We so want to avoid suffering and trials and yet if we can grasp that this is part of the refining process how much easier would it be to go through these things. If our desire is to grow more like Jesus day-by-day then suffering WILL be part of that process. We all know that in good times we quickly become apathetic, our prayer life decreases and our need for God also decreases. It is in those dark, hard days that we cling hardest to Jesus, holding tight to his hands.

For those of you going through tough times I know how hard it is to keep on holding on tight but just maybe it helps to know that you are being refined. In Peter it also reminds us again that this is not our home - we are headed for a place where there will be no more pain, no more tears, no more suffering. Hold on tight - He is faithful.