Purifying His precious gold!
(You will find it helpful to Listen to the Audio, as you read the text below.)
God has a masterful purpose for all that He does—even in the sending of trials and troubles to His people. He knows exactly what we stand in need of; and He sends afflictions for our good. He chastises us, not out of anger, as earthly parents too often do, but purely "for our good, that we may share in his holiness!" Hebrews 12:10
As He knows what we need—so He knows what we can bear. He will take care either to apportion our burden to our strength, 1 Corinthians 10:13—or to give us strength sufficient for our trials, Deuteronomy 33:25. In all of our afflictions, He loves and sympathizes with us, Isaiah 63:9. He watches over us with the care of a refiner who is purifying His precious gold, Malachi 3:3, and the solicitude of a tender parent, Psalm 103:13
When He sees that His chastening rod has produced its desired effect, He is glad to return to us in the endearments of love, and to confirm our confidence in Him by the sweetest tokens of His grace, Jeremiah 31:20
When our troubles, like those of Job, are many and various—we are ready to conclude that God afflicts us in anger. But it is not for us to prescribe how many, or of what continuance, our afflictions shall be.
We must consider God as an infallible physician, who prescribes everything with unerring wisdom, and consults the benefit of His patients, rather than their comfort.
Let not any Christian "write bitter things against themselves" on account of the greatness of His afflictions, but rather receive our every trial as a token of His Fatherly love. "For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives." Hebrews 12:6
Let us ever remember, that whatever we have is God's—it is only lent us for a little while, to be recalled whenever He sees fit. Let us learn to hold everything in this way, that we may be ready at any moment to give up whatever He shall be pleased to require of us.
If we saw the end as God does—then instead of regarding our losses or troubles as needless afflictions, we would adore God for them, as much as for the most pleasing of His blessings.
Let us then wait until He shall have revealed to us the whole of His perfect designs; and be content to form our judgment of Him when all the purposes of His afflictions are laid before us!