June 18 The Bread of Adversity
June 18
The Bread of Adversity
“Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them.”
—Isaiah 30:20
God wants to refine you. Your trial is a refining. He will be true to Isaiah 48:10, “See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.” Your God is a consuming fire and He sits as the Refiner purging every impurity from your life. Your response? Agree with Job that “When he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.”
God wants to sift you. Your trial is a sifting. You are God’s grain, planted by Him and to be gathered by His hand. You are coarse and rough grain and must pass through several processes of sifting. Each sieve is finer, “However, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace” (Hebrews 12:11).
God wants to prune you. Your trial is a pruning. “Every branch that does bear fruit he prunes clean so that it will be even more fruitful” (John 15:2). The pruning process hurts, but God is a careful gardener, and He prunes you with great skill and love.
God wants to polish you. Your trial is a polishing. You are a living stone to be carved just as it says in Psalm 144:12, “Our daughters will be like pillars carved to adorn a palace.” God wants to chisel away your rough edges.
Refining. Sifting. Pruning. Polishing. God gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction for good reasons. With God’s Word as your teacher, your own eyes can see the purpose of the Lord.
Just like Your Word says, no trial seems pleasant, Lord. But I thank You that Your purposes are wise and wonderful.