Hard Things

As I was reading the Word early this morning I was drawn to this verse.

Isaiah 54 verse 16,

"Behold I have created the blacksmith
Who blows the coals in the fire,
Who brings forth an instrument for his work......."

Do any of you feel like you have been in that fire here lately? Can you relate? I can.

This week we lost a long time friend. A trusted family member. A big ole fella who has hung around here eating and getting into anything he could get into to. Be it dog food left over night in the bed of a pickup. To banging out his very own ration of cow cake early in the winter mornings. He was a master at walking cattle guards and opening barn doors that were not latched properly. He had not a linage paper to his name. He was about as much a 'mutt' as they come. But he was a best friend to a little girl that prayed him here years ago. His name was Casper and we loved him.

In the scheme of life the loss of a horse is small compared to all the suffering in the world. But that does not make it any less painful.

In everything there is a lesson that the Lord wants us to learn. I believe that with all my heart and soul. Even in the death of a horse.

I have been pondering a lot since this happened. I hate seeing anything suffer. Of all the times that I question the Lord it is when I see suffering. I can't understand it. I don't like it. I wish it was not so.

But it is so. The Lord Jesus said it would be so. We will suffer in this world. He did not say we would have riches beyond compare. We would all drive fancy cars. Live in mansions. Have the best of everything. Always have good health. He said we would suffer. We would go through bad times. We would lose people we love. Things we love.

He never promised an easy ride.

But He did promise this " I will never leave you nor forsake you." Heb. 13:5

He tells the truth. He cannot lie.

I don't know much about the art of being a blacksmith. I do know alittle. I know that the object has to be put in the fire and heated until very hot before it can be shaped into the object the smithy desires. It can't bend until it is heated. Until it is so hot that it glows.

I watched a demonstration of this one time. The smithy showed how he would make a nail. He started out with just a piece of iron. He heated it, beat it with his hammer cooled it and did this several times until he had this perfectly formed nail. It was pretty amazing.

We are like that. We are pretty much a shapeless object until the Lord starts working on us. Sometimes we don't understand it. We don't like it. The fire is hot. It is uncomfortable. But little by little we are being shaped. Honed. Crafted into what He wants us to be. It isn't easy. He never said it would be.

We might think it could be done in an easier way. Less painful. But it can't. Sometimes the only way we can grow is to hurt.

To become "an instrument that He can use."

Requires being in the fire.

If we never experience grief how can we help someone who is grieving?

If we never experience hurt how can we help someone who is hurting?

If we never experience bad health how can we help someone who is sick?

How can we help "bear one another's burdens", if we don't even know what that means?

How can we live out our Christian walk and not face suffering?

He suffered. More than any man that has ever walked the face of the earth..because He was sinless. He didn't deserve any of it.

And He did it for me. For you. For the whole world.

Because of love.

He is your "fourth" man in the fires of this life.

God Bless and Happy Trails
RanchWife