Refiner's Fire

Many people claim that there is no God or that He is a cruel and uncaring God when they are afflicted or suffer. Whilst God does not wish us to suffer, suffering does have a purpose. Most suffering comes from our own foolish choices or the agency of others who care more for the things of this world than for people. But the Lord also allows suffering as a teaching and a refining. In all cases of suffering, whether it is as a result of our own choices, the agency of others or for His wise purposes, the Lord is with us and bears most of the suffering. He never abandons us. The things I have suffered in my life have served to cause me to know more fully that there is a God and that He is all loving, merciful and wise.

 I foolishly worshiped the 'golden calf' whilst still professing love of God. What followed was a long period of wandering in the wilderness. A time of grief, despair, fear, loneliness and pain. I came to learn through this period, as a passed through the 'refiner's fire' that nothing here on earth, no possession, emotion or status, has any real value or power and only the Lord God is worth worshiping.

Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.
Isaiah 48:10

And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.
Zechariah 13:9

And when we cried unto the Lord God of our fathers, the Lord heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression
And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders:
And He hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey.
Deuteronomy 26: 7-9

For He hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath He hid His face from him; but when he cried unto Him, He heard.

Psalm 22:24