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Help In Daily Living
disappointed to find themselves, as never before, confronted by obsta-
cles and beset by trials and perplexities. They pray for Christlikeness
of character, for a fitness for the Lord’s work, and they are placed in
circumstances that seem to call forth all the evil of their nature. Faults
are revealed of which they did not even suspect the existence. Like
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Israel of old they question, “If God is leading us, why do all these
things come upon us?”
It is because God is leading them that these things come upon them.
Trials and obstacles are the Lord’s chosen methods of discipline and
His appointed conditions of success. He who reads the hearts of men
knows their characters better than they themselves know them. He
sees that some have powers and susceptibilities which, rightly directed,
might be used in the advancement of His work. In His providence He
brings these persons into different positions and varied circumstances
that they may discover in their character the defects which have been
concealed from their own knowledge. He gives them opportunity to
correct these defects and to fit themselves for His service. Often He
permits the fires of affliction to assail them that they may be purified.
The fact that we are called upon to endure trial shows that the Lord
Jesus sees in us something precious which He desires to develop. If
He saw in us nothing whereby He might glorify His name, He would
not spend time in refining us. He does not cast worthless stones into
His furnace. It is valuable ore that He refines. The blacksmith puts
the iron and steel into the fire that he may know what manner of metal
they are. The Lord allows His chosen ones to be placed in the furnace
of affliction to prove what temper they are of and whether they can be
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fashioned for His work.
The potter takes the clay and molds it according to his will. He
kneads it and works it. He tears it apart and presses it together. He
wets it and then dries it. He lets it lie for a while without touching it.
When it is perfectly pliable, he continues the work of making of it a
vessel. He forms it into shape and on the wheel trims and polishes
it. He dries it in the sun and bakes it in the oven. Thus it becomes
a vessel fit for use. So the great Master Worker desires to mold and
fashion us. And as the clay is in the hands of the potter, so are we to
be in His hands. We are not to try to do the work of the potter. Our
part is to yield ourselves to be molded by the Master Worker.