Kindness in Suffering: 12 Ways God Shows His Goodness Through Trials and AfflictionsSample

Suffering Reveals Our Weaknesses and Sins

When trials assail us, our natural defenses fall. Any attempt at self-righteousness or good works utterly fails and we are left with the shattered vessel that is underneath. Scripture repeatedly likens suffering to a refiner’s fire. Like a refiner’s fire, suffering has productive purposes. When considering the sinfulness of the people of Israel, the Lord promised, “I will . . . smelt away your dross as with lye and will remove your alloy” (Isa. 1:25). The imagery pictured here is of a metallurgist heating up a piece of steel until it’s glowing orange, and then beating and scraping all the impurities out of it until it becomes pure.

When Job considered the afflictions he had received, while he did not understand their purpose, he knew that “when [the Lord] has tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). When the Lord had afflicted Israel, He declared, “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction” (Isa. 48:10). While the imagery is vivid, it is consistently clear that “the refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests hearts” (Prov. 17:3). Suffering is the furnace, the dross is weaknesses and sins of the heart, and the Lord God is the Refiner who labors with the metal until it has been made pure (cf. Ps. 66:10).

Why does the Lord refine our hearts with such intense fire? It is because of His great lovingkindness that He does not give us over to our own sins, or let us wither away in our polluted condition. He purges us, exposing our sins, and reveals our spiritual deformities, in order that we can repent to the Lord and seek restoration in Him. The only way we will ever grow is if the Lord reveals the dross within our hearts. Suffering is the Lord’s way of purifying His people.