FIRE & WATING

     I often want a perfect life.  Anybody else with me?  Maybe its because we were created for perfection and will one day enter back into it (those who have accepted God's free gift of grace through belief in Christ death and resurrection to take care of the debt we owned for our sin).  I can get distracted by my desire for things to be perfect.  Living life with excellence is one thing, unrealistic expectations is an exhausting other.  When I say perfect I mean trial free.  I want easy.  Peter helps bring perspective to this kind of thinking in 1Peter 4:12, Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's suffering, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. 

Huh, not quite what you want to hear if your going for easy.  This verse doesn't give way to easy but it is extremely validating, right?  We are not alone in the fiery trials of this life.  They are supper normal.  Accepting that can in and of itself relieve some serious stress.  It has for me.  So we know that trials are normal and that God's word has much to say about trials, how to handle them and their purpose in our lives.  I would like to just encourage you with a couple of truths on the matter. 
     As we have discovered in the last few days that waiting is not just holding out for relief from unresolved matters, it is a time of actively adhering and binding ourselves to Christ.  It is a time for intimacy and gentle help from God for our moment by moment life.  Waiting in and of itself can be the trial, as it is in our lives right now.  Or as I search the scriptures I find that in every trial there is an element of waiting.  The biblical waiting.  The active abiding in Christ.  It is possible to be tried and come out on the other end rejoicing to suffer with Christ!  Which is still a very new concept for me. 
     The books Isaiah and Lamentations have some pretty dark scenes.  Also woven through our are some bright nuggets of hope. A few that have to do with waiting in the trials are:
But those who wait (Bind together as in twisting) on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Is. 40:31
     A classic bumper sticker but such beautiful truth.  We need renewed strength daily!  For seasons of walking and seasons of running.  We get that renewal in binding ourselves to the Lord! 
The LORD is good to those who wait (bind together) on Him, to the soul who seeks Him.  It is good that one should hope and quietly wait (active waiting) for the salvation of the LORD. Lam. 3:25
     When God's word simply states something is "good," we will always benefit to pay attention.  In the midst of a trial that heats things up as fire does, it is "good" to bind ourselves to Christ. In Him, we will receive the peace and even joy to endure His style. My style involves lots of complaining and trying to figure it all our.  His style has a settle assurance that He is in control and that there is purpose in hard and terrible of this life. 
     There are so many deep truths in these verses I couldn't hope to unpack them all in just a few post. I pray reader you are build up to take one step at a time.  If you are in a season of fiery trial, you are not alone, there is relief in adhering and binding yourself to Christ.  It will always be in His intimate mercy that we find help in our times of need.  He stoops down to handle us gently. Leap into His embrace!  That will always look like spending time in the Bible, prayer and then being attentive to Him through out the very regular daily stuff we all have on our plate.  Press on and press in. 

24Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astounded and stood up in haste; he said to his high officials, “Was it not three men we cast bound into the midst of the fire?” They replied to the king, “Certainly, O king.”25He said, “Look! I see four men loosed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!”26Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the furnace of blazing fire; he responded and said, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, come out, you servants of the Most High God, and come here!” Then Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego came out of the midst of the fire.27The satraps, the prefects, the governors and the king’s high officials gathered around and saw in regard to these men that the fire had no effect on the bodies of these men nor was the hair of their head singed, nor were their trousers damaged, nor had the smell of fire even come upon them. Daniel 3:24-27