Refined by Trials
Opening Prayer
Lord, I praise You that You know the end from the beginning, and You are working everything out in my life for Your glory.
Read Isaiah 48:1–11
“Listen to this, you descendants of Jacob,
you who are called by the name of Israel
and come from the line of Judah,
you who take oaths in the name of the Lord
and invoke the God of Israel—
but not in truth or righteousness—
2 you who call yourselves citizens of the holy city
and claim to rely on the God of Israel—
the Lord Almighty is his name:
3 I foretold the former things long ago,
my mouth announced them and I made them known;
then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.
4 For I knew how stubborn you were;
your neck muscles were iron,
your forehead was bronze.
5 Therefore I told you these things long ago;
before they happened I announced them to you
so that you could not say,
‘My images brought them about;
my wooden image and metal god ordained them.’
6 You have heard these things; look at them all.
Will you not admit them?
“From now on I will tell you of new things,
of hidden things unknown to you.
7 They are created now, and not long ago;
you have not heard of them before today.
So you cannot say,
‘Yes, I knew of them.’
8 You have neither heard nor understood;
from of old your ears have not been open.
Well do I know how treacherous you are;
you were called a rebel from birth.
9 For my own name’s sake I delay my wrath;
for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you,
so as not to destroy you completely.
10 See, I have refined you, though not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this.
How can I let myself be defamed?
I will not yield my glory to another.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Has God ever made you a personal promise? Did he fulfill it yet?The God of Israel has a message for his people—for those who “claim to rely on the God of Israel” (2). In the past he announced future events, then “suddenly’” he acted and they happened (3). Maybe you can think of something like this happening in your own life. “From now on,” God says, “I will tell you of new things… created now, and not long ago” (6,7). For God‘s people then these “new things” referred to God’s deliverance of them from exile in
Babylon, foreshadowing a greater deliverance from spiritual blindness and slavery.
As those who look back to the redemption won for us by the Messiah, and look forward to the total renewal of the universe, we rejoice that our God is always announcing and doing new things.
The question is whether we will be stubborn and rebellious, like God’s people of old (4,8), or allow the trials we experience to refine us (10; 1 Pet. 1:6,7). What God wants is that amidst life’s hassles we learn to focus always on Jesus (Heb. 12:2)—and on what he wants to do in and through us.
Apply
Are you going through a hard time right now? Are you chafing against it or are you looking to see what you can learn from it?
Closing prayer
Lord, show me how to make Jesus even more famous by declaring to friends and
neighbors the wonderful things he has done.
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