The Joy Challenge: Wednesday 16th March 2014

Praise god for refinement. "Endure trials for the sake of discipline.God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? Discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." Hebrews 12.7,11. Ouch. Seriously. Ouch. And yet, God is oh so jealous for our holiness, so desirous for us to be like his son that he will stop at nothing to refine us. Through illness, through difficult relationships, through revealing the depths of our own depravity in our irritations with others, through iron sharpening iron as we are grated against each other. Proverbs 27:17. This refining is a painful business. And yet oh how we long for its fruit. How we ache to be holy and clean and pure, washed and rinsed and mangled to perfection. He disciplines for our good that we may share in his holiness. Hebrews 12:10. Hallelujah.