The main image Scripture uses for a hard season is refining, and it promises less than it is usually made to promise. A crucible for silver, a furnace for gold, faith tested by fire. Refining separates the metal from what was mixed into it and adds nothing to it. Proverbs 17:3 keeps to that: the crucible and the furnace test, and the Lord tests the heart. Scripture also records suffering it declines to explain. Paul calls his own thorn a…
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