Refine.

Updating this blog has become a bit of a problem. You see, I have so many half-written, half-spoken thoughts. And most times they just drop off and I move onto the next big thought.
Needless to say, perhaps the theme of the last couple months has been a common thread in the unfinished thought.

SUFFERING.

The past year, sometimes in greater measures and sometimes not at all, God has taught this teacher so much about weakness and suffering and grace. Mostly, He has showed me what worship really IS.
He has taken the clay that I am and put me right in the furnace.

It really hurts sometimes.

The furnace is hot and uncomfortable and sometimes even dangerous.
It refines and purifies the things in me that are me and not Him.
It's like gold... being refined again and again and again.

But in the suffering, He has taught me to rejoice.
He has worked all things for His good.
And when the world (aka my circumstances) come crashing down around me, all I can do is crawl to the cross and cling to it.
But beyond that, I am learning something else. I must not just cling to the cross, I am to cling to it JOYFULLY.
Because joy is something that is there in spite of circumstances. Joy is beyond anything in the natural realm. Beyond what we can perceive from human eyes.

It's not happiness. It's not super-human or bigger than life.
It's an overflow of the Father in us.
How absolutely incredible is that?

"Even though the fig trees have no blossoms,
and there are no grapes on the vines;
even though the olive crop fails,
and the fields lie empty and barren...
yet I will rejoice in the Lord!
I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!
The Sovereign Lord is my strength!
He makes me as surefooted as a deer,
able to tread upon the heights."
-Habbakuk 3:17-19

My God's got power.
He uses the worst circumstances and gives us a reason to rejoice!
It's not ignoring the problem or avoiding the situation.
It's rejoicing because of who HE is, not because of where you are.

 

It's called Worship.