His Refining

"Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction"

Be patient, suffering soul!

I hear thy cry

The trial fires may flow,

but I am nigh.

I see the silver,

and I will refine

Until My image 

shall upon it shine.

Fear not, for I am near,

thy help to be;

Greater than all thy pain,

My love for thee.

H.W.C.

God takes a thousand times more pains with us than the artist with his picture, by many touches of sorrow, and by many colors of circumstance, to bring man into the form which is the highest and noblest in His sight, if only we received His gifts and myrrh in the right spirit.  But when the cup is put away, and these feelings are stifled or unheeded, a greater injury is done to the soul than can ever be amended.  For no heart can conceived in what surpassing love God giveth us this myrrh; yet this which we ought to receive to our soul's good, we suffer to pass by us in our sleepy indifference, and nothing comes, of it.  Then we come and complain:  "Alas, Lord! I am so dry, and it is so dark within me!"  I tell thee, dear child, open thy heart to the pain, and it will do thee more good than if thou wert full of feeling and devoutness.  ~J. Tauler
Above taken from today's Daily Strength For Daily Needs

His Hidden Purpose

Peace was not His purpose

His instrument was pain

A regimented suffering

designed to increase strain

I tried to comprehend it

in vain to understand

the more I sought the truth to grasp

it slipped right through my hand

Loneliness and sorrow

became familiar friend

His answer to my fainting cry,

"Endure unto the end"

What was His aim I muttered

with hope and vision dim

I thought that my surrender

would make me more like Him

Then suddenly I saw it

a figure bruised and marred

beyond all recognition

His body ugly scarred

through tear filled eyes now gazing

the dawning light did see

His still voice broke the silence

"You asked to be like Me"