Transformed by Trials

I think I'm just going to make Tuesday #TonyEvansTuesday... Here's the link to the original post!

Transformed by Trials

Tony Evans

In His Presence: Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials (James 1:2).

The television show “Extreme Makeover” puts people through all kinds of adverse circumstances so that they might look better than they did when they started the makeover process. They undergo surgical procedures, grueling workouts, and physical pain in order to be transformed into something beautiful.

One of the primary ways God makes us more like Christ is by allowing us to face trouble. To conform us into the image of Christ, we don’t just need minor surgery--we require major transformation. In fact, God has to put a brand new nature inside us.  Just as a sculptor chips away at a piece of marble to turn it into a beautiful sculpture, God uses trials to chip away at us, sculpting us to resemble the image of Christ.

One Minute Please

Like a photographer developing his film in a darkroom, God develops a beautiful photograph of Christlikeness in us when we go through dark times.

Fire Power!

"⁶ In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ 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 honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, " (1 Peter 1:6-8; NIV 2010 Edition).

This past Saturday I was meeting up with some friends for a dinner party. I had all day to get ready...and I took advantage of every minute. Clothes ironed by 9am, car cleaned/washed by 2pm, and I even had time to relax and take care of some errands. Everything was going on schedule until this:

Brush fires in the state of Maryland.

Now I don't know the science behind brush fires because I missed that episode of The Magic School Bus, but it got me thinking...

How does God use fire?

In the natural sense, I found this out about wildfires:

Wildfires consume vegetation that would otherwise become overgrown, creating ideal conditions for a catastrophic wildfire. Wildfires allow more open spaces for new and different kinds of vegetation to grow and receive sunlight. This, in turn, provides fresh nutrients and shelter for forest plants and animals. Wildfires also keep our forests healthy by consuming harmful insects and diseases.(From Here)

If you've ever experienced a fire in your life, you know that that is exactly what happens.

God uses fire, or trials, in our lives to not only add but to subtract. Trials show us what has become overgrown and what needs to be scaled back or even killed. Trials also add by deepening our faith and allowing us more creative ways to give God glory. Like Paul says in the scripture above, the value of our faith is even greater than gold. Our faith is the catalyst that takes a bad situation and turns it around for God's glory. There is a change that happens - a transformation - that happens only because of God's testing us by fire. When it's all over and the dust has settled, you've become a new person. And sometimes this is a new person you would not have been if you let things overgrow in your life that needed pruning or removing.

Thank God for the fire in our lives!