THE HEALER OF MY SOUL

 

The Word Made Flesh by Jordan Ring-Sakabe

Your lessons, so piercing

And so raw

Leave me spent

As I exhale the hurt and let it go;

Your wisdom prevails

And tutors me when I need it most;

You are the healer who saves

The broken hearted and the lost.

 

-      CATHRYNE ALLEN 

THE ART OF PRAYER 2

 

Pray In Faith, Believing by Greg Collins

Christ's humility in praying to the Father has always amazed me.  He who proclaimed himself to be the life of the world, Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end (3 Nephi 9:18), a god in his own right, knelt upon the ground with the Nephites and prayed, but not just any prayer, for the scriptures record "....The eye hath never seen, neither hath the ear heard, before, so great and marvellous things as we saw and heard Jesus speak unto the Father" (3 Nephi 17:16).

What did He say? What words could He have possibly used to express such high regard and affection toward the Father He so loved? Verse 15 states that what He prayed about cannot be written. Perhaps because there was some revelatory content of that prayer that we could not sufficiently understand on this mortal level. I also know that some heavenly manifestations and revelations cannot be put into words because our earthly language is inadequate. I mostly suspect it was the latter and that Jesus spoke words of utmost respect and devotion, of love and adoration, of submission and gratitude that there were no adequate words to describe it.

Another significant prayer of which we have a record is the one the Saviour uttered at the Last Supper which we know as the ‘intercessory prayer’, and which could only be addressed to none but the Father whom He loved and longed to be with again (John 17):

“It has been called, and not inappropriately, the Lord’s High-Priestly Prayer. In it Jesus acknowledged the Father as the source of His power and authority, which authority extends even to the giving of eternal life to all who are worthy….With unfathomable love the Lord pleaded for those whom the Father had given Him, the apostles then present, who had been called out from the world, and who had been true to their testimony of Himself as the Son of God.”  (James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ, p 609) 

We too can speak such sublime words of worship.  We can be given those words by the power of the Holy Ghost and we can speak with the tongue of angels each time we bend our knees and come before the throne of God who yearns to gather us into his bosom and bring us home (2 Nephi 32:2) 

There is another form of prayer and that is a prayer of power. At the Last Supper, Jesus directed his disciples for the first time to pray to the Father in His name with assurance of success in supplication: “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it (John 14:13,14). The name of Jesus Christ was to be thenceforth the divinely established talisman by which the powers of heaven could be invoked to operate in any righteous undertaking.” (James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ, p 603)

The prayer of power is not just any simple prayer with the mention of the Saviour’s name at the end. For it to glorify the Father, the supplication needs to be a submitted in conjunction with professed faith in Jesus Christ. Just mentioning Him at the end of the prayer is not sufficient in my mind.  

A story of Alma and Amulek from the Book of Mormon is an ideal example of this: Alma, and his convert and missionary companion, Amulek, found themselves in captivity in the most wicked city where they sat in a dungeon naked, suffering hunger, thirst, and physical abuse by their captors (Alma 14:18-23).

In the extremity of their captivity, Alma offered the most heart-wrenching petition to God: “How long shall we suffer these great afflictions, O Lord? O Lord, give us strength according to our faith which is in Christ, even unto deliverance. ” (Alma 14:26). The cords which held Alma and Amulek bound were broken instantly, the earth shook mightily, and the walls of the prison were rent in twain. Alma and Amulek went out of the prison, “and they were not hurt; for the Lord had granted unto them power, according to their faith which was in Christ.” (v 28)

There is no greater prayer than the prayer uttered through faith in Jesus Christ. I bear witness of this because I too was a recipient of deliverance. Through my greatest trial in life, I prayed using these words: “through my faith in Jesus Christ and the power of His Atonement, I ask for the healing of my heart…….”.  It was a deliverance from pain I felt would split my chest open. The healing came within weeks of consistent pleading through my unshaken faith in Him who has bled that I might live. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

SUBMISSION

 

He Pleads My Cause by Greg Collins

You submitted to the Father’s will

To pave the path to glories unseen;

And bowed in humility Your godly knee

That all mankind like You can be.

 

-      CATHRYNE ALLEN 

THE ART OF PRAYER 1

 

Bless Me Dear Lord by Greg Collins

I was speaking to a friend recently who told me he is presently teaching his children to say prayers of gratitude. For a time they are not allowed to ask for anything, only express gratitude to God for everything they receive at His hand. I was so touched by this because I believe in prayers of gratitude. I believe they bring us closer to God.

Another friend taught me years ago the true order of prayer which is praying by the power of the Holy Ghost. When we ask for his presence at the start of our prayer, we are given to ask for that which the Father is willing to give us for ‘he that asketh in the Spirit asketh according to the will of God; wherefore it is done even as he asketh’ (D&C 46:30). It’s an easy way of submitting to God’s will.

Praying by the power of the Holy Ghost also ensures that we do not ask for the wrong thing because ‘anything that is not expedient for us, shall turn unto our condemnation’ therefore we should not ‘ask for that which we ought not’ (D&C 8:10; 88:65)

I have learnt one interesting truth through prayer. There is no free lunch. That’s Satan’s philosophy. You get what you pray for but it comes with a price. I have noticed I have not prayed for one attribute I wanted without getting a difficulty or trial of some sort to enable me to develop what I’ve asked for. There is no magic wand that will change us into what we want to be overnight. If you pray like this make sure you are the person who is willing to change and to grow.

I believe there is also a higher and more supernal art of prayer. It is a prayer of worship. Whenever I come across someone’s prayer recorded in the scriptures I am touched to my core to hear such beautiful words of praise uttered by man. I am saddened that our prayers today fall short somewhat of reverence and worship they used to be anciently and now tend to be mere one-way dialogues of thanks and petitions for help. Some of us do not worship God for who He is and tend to speak to Him in all too familiar and common way as if He is our friend and so godly respect gets somewhat lost.

Consider the beautiful words of King Hezekiah’s prayer: “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth….” (Isaiah 37:16-20) or of King Mannaseh who was the most loathed and cursed king in history of Judah, the most idolatrous king who sacrificed his own son to a heathen god, added devotion of heavenly bodies and constellations to idol worship, who shed innocent blood of prophets and all the righteous men among Hebrews every day until he had filled Jerusalem with blood from one end to the other (2 Kings 21).

When the Assyrians carried him off to Babylon he saw the error of his ways and went to the Lord with the most profound prayer that is today known as The Prayer of Manasseh. A reference to the prayer, but not the prayer itself, is made in 2 Chronicles 33:19). The prayer is deemed to be  Apocryphal by Jews and Christians alike and is used by some Christian Churches today. These are the words that touched my heart the most because they were uttered from the very depth of Manasseh’s heart: “O Lord, God of our fathers…unending and immeasurable are your promised mercies….O Lord I am justly afflicted because I did evil things before you….And now behold I AM BENDING THE KNEES OF MY HEART…”  Have you ever heard a prayer of repentance as touching as this???

Manasseh’s prayer is today considered one that pays tribute to the merciful heart of God. Praying to God acknowledging His providence, mercy, grace, kindness, love and all the perfect attributes He possesses will bring us nearer to His throne because of the humility which will grow in our hearts and endear us to the God of heaven. Therein we will find forgiveness, mercy and deliverance and most importantly we will bring joy to His heart and be a delight to Him forever. And may we remember to bend the knees of our hearts next time we pray.

I stand all amazed as I am lifted to Thy throne,

To see Thy soul and all that Thou art.

If I had the might to plant Thee in each heart

Of all that breathes,

In pursuit of such a quest I would walk the earth

With apparent ease.

I long to praise the magnitude of words I cannot find

That tell the glory that is Thine.

As I can do so little all my desires to meet,

I place my loyal love at Thy holy feet.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

ODE TO THE HOLY GHOST

 

The Spirit of God by LDS Art

When you softly whisper to my soul

I know the Father is there

Ever mindful of my needful care.

 

When you softly whisper to my soul

I know the Saviour will rescue me

When I am tempest tossed onto a troubled sea.

 

When you softly whisper to my soul

I know angels are waiting to lift my heart

In the still of the darkest night.

 

When you softly whisper to my soul

I know You will bring me home

And never abandon my care,

You are the gift that will guide me there.

 

-          CATHRYNE ALLEN 

 

 -

THE LION

Lion of Judah by Danny Hahlbohm

One of the most endearing titles the Saviour has is ‘the Lion of Judah’ (Revelation 5:5). It denotes strength and power that balances the picture of the meek and sacrificial Lamb mentioned in the following verse (v 6).

Before the patriarch Jacob died he blessed his sons and their posterity and named the tribe of Judah a ‘lion’s whelp’ (Genesis 49:9) which shall rule in Israel until ‘Shiloh’ (Christ, the Messiah, the Lion) shall come to gather His people (v 10).

To be a lion of a tribe, one needs to have the blood of that tribe run through his veins. Not only did Jesus have that blood that bonded Him to His mortal roots but He had the social and cultural bonding with His people:

“Jesus was a Jew; he was of the tribe of Judah. David, the Jew, was his fore-father, and Mary, the Jewess, his mother. He grew up in a Jewish home, spoke the Jewish Aramaic of the day, Learned Jewish customs and traditions, studied in Jewish schools, read Jewish scripture, attended Jewish synagogues, and participated in Jewish worship. From Bethlehem to Calvary, he was a Jew of the Jews.”  (Bruce R. McConkie, The Mortal Messiah Book 1, p 296)

The two instances in the scriptures where the Saviour is spoken of as the lion are relative to His protectiveness of the House of Israel (Isaiah 31:4; Hosea 11:9,10; Revelation 5:5,6).

In Hosea, the Saviour laments over Ephraim who has forsaken Him and exclaims, ‘mine heart is turned toward thee, and my mercies are extended to gather thee’ (v 8aJST). Hosea then says ‘He shall roar like a lion and the children shall tremble from the west’ (v 10). We Ephraim, in the western hemisphere, have certainly trembled at the sound of His voice as we have gathered to His earthly kingdom restored in 1830 through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

On his final visit to the Temple, prior to His crucifixion, the Saviour once again proclaimed His divine Sonship.  For the last time He cried out loud that He who believes Him, believes Him who sent Him (John 12:44). I think of the Lion in Him when I picture this scene. This was the last call to the Jewish nation to believe in Him as the Son of God and the Lion of Judah who ‘washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes’ to atone for His people (Genesis 49:11). Instead of belief, the people questioned, ‘who is this Son of Man’ that you say must be lifted up? (John 12:34).

Who is this Son of Man? He is the Son of Man of Holiness, who is God the Father, for Man of Holiness is His name (Moses 5:57); He is the light of the world and whosoever believes in Him will not abide in darkness (John 12:46); He is the Son of God under whose command He came to preach all righteousness and that salvation is through Him and of Him (v 49); He is the Father’s servant who came to offer life everlasting to all who believe on His name (v 50). He is the bread of life (John 6:35,41,48,51); He is the light of the world (John 8:12; 9:5); He is the good shepherd (John 10:11,14); He is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25); He is the way and the truth and the life (John 14:6); He is the Messiah, the Lord Omnipotent, Alpha and Omega, He is Jesus the Christ, the King of Glory.......….…….can you hear the roar???

 

I remember coming to You

Long ago through the water’s gate,

So inviting, wide open for my soul to embrace.

 

You flowed through my heart since that day

Showing me the wonder of You;

I have seen Your agonizing sacrifice,

And Your spilt blood too.

 

I hear You, I am Your sheep,

I know You and Your sacrificial pains

For the believing blood of Israel

Runs through my veins.

 

 - CATHRYNE ALLEN 

WILLING TO GIVE

 

I Am the Light by Mindi Oaten

All that is unspoken

And all that is unseen

All that I feel

In the depths of my soul

I long to give to Thee.

 

And all that You ask of me

And all that I am

I will place

On the altar of sacrifice

for Thee.

 

I give You my all

As You gave Your all

Because a heart

Can give no more.

 

-       CATHRYNE ALLEN

OUR PURPOSE

 

Jehovah Creates the Earth by Walter Rane

All suffering and all endurance of this life denotes the very purpose of God, to exalt his children. All that is asked of us, our sacrifices, our suffering, our difficulties, our development and our progression is God’s work and His glory, “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:7). The next level of our purpose in life is to become gods ourselves.

This is a hard doctrine for many people to believe that mere man can rise to such stature. I once wrote on Facebook that God’s purpose is to exalt His children to godhood and enraged one reader who claimed there is only one God and ever will be and therefore we are a Church of blasphemy. The funny thing is, deep down in us are seeds of the very idea. I have been watching a lot of AI generated historical periods. The Roman Empire in particular is a very interesting time. Everybody it seemed was vying for the position of pharaoh even though the risk of being murdered was exceptionally high. The most interesting thing is that many pharaohs proclaimed themselves to be gods.

When Moses encountered God on Mt Sinai, God showed him all the worlds He had made and Moses was astonished and proclaimed: “Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed” (Moses 1:10). Having been raised in an Egyptian court, Moses was trained to believe there is none greater than the Pharoah….until he saw God and what He can do and by this he concluded that man is nothing. God then repeated the vision of all His works to ensure that Moses understood the purpose of all His creations was to exalt His children (Moses 1:7).

To rise to such heights as godhood, the price has to be paid. The Saviour has paved the way but He could not make us godly. Only we can do that by accepting all the tutoring that God will give and all that we will give in return.

We are told that: 1. we must be chastened and tried, even as Abraham was, who was commanded to offer up his only son and if we will not endure chastening but deny God, we cannot be sanctified (D&C 101:4-5); and 2. We will be proven in all things even unto death by abiding in His covenant (D&C 98:12-15).

“This seems like such a high standard. Why must one be tested and chastened before he can be sanctified? Why can a person not be worthy of God unless he is willing to abide in the covenant even to death? To understand these questions and to gain greater insight into why Abraham had to prove himself, think in the eternal perspective for a moment. Imagine the disastrous consequences of making a person a god who was not perfect in every respect.

“How would the universe survive if it were controlled by a god who could not withstand even intense pressure? Where would we be now if our God had not been disposed to endure the suffering of seeing His Only Begotten Son go to the cross? If Abraham had failed his test, he would have lost his position.

“If God the Father had failed the same test there would have been no Atonement and all mankind would have “become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil….And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils….to be shut out from the presence of our God.” (2 Nephi 9:8-9)

-          (Old Testament Student Manual, Genesis – 2 Samuel, p 79)

In other words, we must give our all for God to give His all…..the bar is high but help is near and the eternal in us yearns to be more than this mortal sphere can give us. The Saviour made sure our purpose has an eternal destination.

 

If not for You,

Where would I be?

I would belong to the enemy.

 

If not for You,

Where would I be?

I would be lost in obscurity.

 

If not for You,

Where would I be?

As death would claim me for eternity.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

LONGING

 

I miss You Father,

More than I can tell.

I long to come home to Your embrace,

I want to be free from

This harsh and lonely place.

 

Are You missing ME, Father?

And do You long for MY embrace?

Or do all the hosts of heaven

Fill my empty space?

 

I want to be the daughter

Like the Son that He was,

I follow, I follow,

Leaving behind all my earthly sorrow.

-       CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Artist Unknown)

THE SCHOOLMASTER

 

Day 6 of Creation by Nathan Greene

“We will acknowledge someday, before God and all his children, that life on this earth, that which we longed for as premortal spirits desiring mortality, was the perfect school for our development. Though the curriculum was exacting, the tests were more than adequately supervised by the schoolmaster. Though the homework was extensive, again our teacher was our constant support.” (Jerry A. Wilson, The Great Plan of Happiness – Insights From the Lectures on Faith, p 75)

Looking back on Job’s life and considering the perfection of his character, it is obvious that the test of his life had to equal the stature of the man otherwise it would not have qualified as a test. I don’t know how long Job’s test of faith lasted. The Bible does not tell us the exact length though most biblical scholars and estimates suggest it lasted anywhere from several months to under a year, composed of these timeline clues:

-          Initial Losses: Job’s sudden loss of children and livestock happened rapidly, unfolding over a single catastrophic day (Job 1:13-19)

-          The Silent Mourning: Job’s three friends sat with him in silence for seven days and seven nights after seeing his physical affliction (Job 2:13)

-          Months of Suffering: Job laments in Job 7:3 that he has been allotted ‘months of futility’ and wearisome nights, suggesting his physical misery lasted a prolonged period.

-          The Discourses: Time passed during the lengthy back-and-forth dialogue between Job and his friends, followed by Elihu’s speeches and God speaking from the whirlwind (Job 38-41).

I have looked back to the greatest test of my faith and have been amazed to discover how perfectly fitted it was to me even though I would never want to repeat anything like that. This test of faith challenged my best attribute and my very essence of being and who I am. I have only just now discovered how intricate the schoolmaster has been with me. The attribute that was tested also happens to be my biggest strength that has kept me active in the Church and ensured my obedience to the Gospel.

The test that I passed lasted much longer than Job’s. It lasted for 11 years and in fact added another 30 years of ensued issues and fears that needed to be resolved. This has been my extensive homework that has made my life difficult but has in the process developed the strength of character I will carry with me into eternity.

The teacher has indeed been my constant support and has because of my endurance granted me the wish of my heart….to keep me in His sight.

 

I failed to understand

Why such deep trials in my life,

I expected much better in my arrogant pride.

How merciful You were Father

To help me see the purpose of the tide;

That through my bruised and aching heart

You kept me by Your loving side.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

PERSONAL GETHSEMANE

 

In His Majesty and Power by Simon Dewey

I wondered why You were absent

When I most needed Thee;

I felt so alone in my suffering,

Yet You promised You’d be with us in everything.

 

I thought I was in my own Garden of Gethsemane,

Until I saw Your footprints

And Your drops of blood

That eluded me.

 

I looked around and I understood

You knew every tree,

Every shrub, even every blade

Of grass in Your vicinity.

I was in Your garden, not mine,

 that beckoned me.

 

I realised You were there still

Praying for my weak soul to come to Thee.

I will come, I will honour Thee;

Let me first sit under this tree a while

To reflect upon Your suffering.

-      Cathryne Allen

THE MIGHTY JOB 3

 

Do You Trust Me by Yongsung Kim

I have written nine blogs about Job over the years but this year as I re-visited his story, I felt that I had missed the crux of his experience. It pierced my heart because it related to me in a personal way.

To recap, Job went from fabulous wealth, exquisite righteousness and being a pinnacle of society to living in rags on the outskirts of the city, in constant pain but remaining devoted to God.

Refusing to curse God and die, Job lost the support of his wife and through the merciless scorn of Job’s self-proclaimed integrity, his friends offered no support. Through it all, Job stood firm defending God. The more they opposed his strength, the more Job praised God insisting ‘with Him is wisdom and strength’ (Job 12:10-24). And in his sorrow, he exclaimed: “My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God” (Job 16:20).

It’s the tears that get me because in the midst of his repeated pleading to God, the heavens remained silent:

“…..as we know, silence had become part of the test. But what a problem this posed for Job. Deep, depressing darkness cowed him by its awful blackness and terrified him by its pervasiveness. Listen to his anguished plea with the Lord for soul-relief, relief that included an answer to his persistent but continually unanswered question: Why? Why? Why? Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy? (Job 13:20-24)…..He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths (19:6-8) (Keith H. Meservy, Job, Yet Will I Trust In Him, pp 139-53)

Job’s greatest pain was not losing his children, his health or his wealth but the betrayal he felt as God turned away from his suffering.

In Lecture 3 of Lectures on Faith, Joseph Smith said that there are three things necessary 'in order that any rational or intelligent being may exercise faith in God unto life and salvation': 1. The idea that God actually exists; 2.  A correct idea of his character, perfections and attributes; 3.  An actual knowledge that the course of life he is pursuing is according to His will.

The Book of Job proves this teaching to be true. To exercise true faith and endure in faithfulness one must be convinced that God exists, have knowledge of His character to foster hope for deliverance and salvation and be assured that his life is acceptable to Him. All three necessary attributes listed above are reflected in Job's life.

When he proclaimed "I know that my Redeemer liveth" (19:25), he was basically bearing testimony of His existence. When he said, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him" (13:15) is a clear indication that he knew of God’s merciful nature, His power and His strength (26:6-14).  Job also knew that the life he was living was according to God's will and this he proved by recounting his good deeds ((29:12-17) and by asserting his righteousness (27:2-6).

What hurt Job the most was God’s silence. He had lived a perfect life, he believed in God, he knew him and yet God was silent. He was a good person and he had done all.  How many times do we come across scriptures that say God is merciful, and He will answer our every prayer and yet at the most crucial time of our lives, we feel abandoned by Him and experience the silence?

How abandoned and rejected Job must have felt. The disdain of his friends was bad enough as was the lack of support from his wife but to be shunned by God was the end of the line. He had nowhere else to go for relief and understanding.  The only place he could go from there was to wish for death (Job 3:3; 10:1). Job was not just alone, he was utterly alone. Many of us understand this place. Yet still in the midst of his longing for the end, Job remained steadfast and in the end he heard the voice of Jehovah ‘out of the whirlwind’ which revived his soul and confirmed the greatness of God who watched over him still (see Job 38).

I remember my tears to God some years ago about facing my trials alone when He answered me: “was it you or I who suffered at Calvary?” I understood back then the lonely road He had travelled in mortality all the way to the cross, abandoned by His friends who ran from Him and betrayed Him and His countrymen who rejected Him. And then the Father’s withdrawal and silence. How utterly, utterly alone the Saviour must have felt in His most crucial moment at Calvary. Those who would be Christ’s have to know ‘the fellowship of His sufferings’ (see Philippians 3:8-10).

What Job did not foresee in the midst of his suffering was that his life would take a turn for the better, and he would be recompensed for not turning his back on one greater than him. His trust in God’s mercy  did come as 'the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning' (Job 42:12). Job lived another 140 years in prosperity and wellness after the trial of his faith. Would he have ever imagined in the mire of his pain such a glorious ending to his life if he had cursed God and died???

ODE TO JOB

You sank so deep

Into the mire of your pain;

Nobody followed you

Nobody sang praises to your name.

 

You longed for the comfort

That nobody could give

But He who gave you life

In whom you believed still.

 

He stood and He waited until

In your hour of agony

You gloried in His name

And became my beacon of hope

that I can do the same.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

THE FINISH LINE

 

His Hand Is Stretched Out Still by Yongsung Kim

You warned me there would be mountains to climb

But promised there would be resting spots along the way;

You warned me of the subtle pitfalls

And how deep and wide the waters I would wade.

But you promised me Your hand in mine

Every minute of the day

And that You would meet me at the finish line

When I had conquered all there was to pay.

 

-       Cathryne Allen 

THE MIGHTY JOB 2

 

“It is not the function of religion to answer all questions about God’s moral government of the universe, but to give courage (through faith) to go on in the face of questions a man never finds the answers to in his present status.” (Elder Harold B. Lee, Church News, as quoted by Keith H. Meservy, “Job: Yet Will I Trust In Him”, pp 139-53)

Job’s life is the prime example of the reality that God allows bad things to happen to good people. A lot of people ask why and finding no understanding, come to reject God and his principle of faith.

I know this place. Since I joined the Church in my youth I naively believed that if I was obedient to the commandments that I will be happy and all will be well in my life. I didn’t take into consideration so many variables: the nature of this fallen world, the purpose of mortality, and the necessity for this testing ground. I remember some years ago I was complaining to God about my trials at hand when I heard a voice say to me: “was it you or I who suffered at Calvary?”

Perhaps the better question would be: If Christ, the only sinless and perfect man had to be subjected to this world of suffering, then why not us? Besides, the excruciating Atonement He went through, He experienced tragedy and sorrow throughout His life: members of His family did not accept Him as the Messiah at first (John 7:5); people in His hometown sought to kill Him (Luke 4:16-30); His countrymen rejected His messianic calling (John 1:11); one friend betrayed Him, another denied knowing Him (Luke 22:48, 54-62); all His disciples forsook Him and fled (Matt 25:56); His enemies demanded His crucifixion (Matt 27:22-23). Is this not a life of difficulty?

It was believed anciently that suffering only comes upon the wicked and that it is God given as punishment. When Jesus healed a man blind from birth, His disciples asked Him: “Master, who did sin, this man or his parents that he was born blind?”  Jesus answered that neither sinned and that the purpose of the man’s blindness was for the ‘works of God to be manifest in him’ (John 9:2,3). So with all of us, there is obviously a purpose for whatever we are afflicted with that is not of our doing.

I rather think that Job had to learn this lesson. His friends accused him of being sinful in some way to have ended up in such extreme suffering. Job defended his integrity (Job 27:6), knowing full well he did not sin but he must have wondered why he was not spared. This made him question if he did really commit some sin so he begged the Lord to reveal it to him so he could repent (Job 13:23). While Job did not understand why God permitted his affliction, he would not judge Him nor lose his faith in Him and could therefore say “let come on me what will” (Job 13:13).

Besides the test of his faithfulness and trust in God, Job’s experience offers us further understanding as to why he, a righteous man, had to suffer. Firstly, all those who desire to come unto Christ have to experience a portion of his suffering to properly know Him. Job proved this to be true.....he only knew OF God prior to his suffering but at the end he came to KNOW God, as he said: "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee" (Job 42:5). To become like Christ and in the end receive of His glory, it is needful for us to become partners with Him, in some small measure, in His sufferings and walk the path He walked. Paul called this 'the fellowship of his sufferings' (Philippians 3:8-10).

Secondly, the fiery darts that we suffer in mortality are designed to fit us for exaltation. God would have us become like Him. For this reason He will allow us to suffer in the refiner's fire that we might in the end become purified with His image in our countenance (Job 23:10; Malachi 3:2,3). This is illustrated well in the following story:  

"Some time ago, a few women met in a certain city to study the scriptures. While reading the 3rd Chapter of Malachi, they came upon a remarkable expression in the 3rd Verse: "And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver". One woman proposed to visit a silversmith and report to them on what he said about the subject. She went accordingly, and without telling the object of her errand begged the silversmith to tell her about the process of refining silver.

“After he had fully described it to her, she asked, "But sir, do you sit while the work of refining is going on?". "Oh yes, Madam", replied the silversmith, "I must sit with my eye steadily fixed on the furnace, for if the time necessary for refining be exceeded in the slightest degree, the silver will be injured". The woman at once saw the beauty, and comfort of the expression, "He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver". God sees it needful to put His children into a furnace; His eye is steadily intent on the work of purifying, and His wisdom and love are both engaged in the best manner for us. Our trials do not come at random, and He will not let us be tested beyond what we can endure. Before she left, the woman asked one final question, "When do you know the process is complete?" "Why, that is quite simple", replied the silversmith. "When I can see my own image in the silver, the refining process is finished".

Your watchful eye was over all my trials

So carefully crafted

With love and tender care,

The crucible almost too hard to bear;

Yet did I worship Thee

Praising Thy name forever.

 

You stood as sentinel to my yielding heart

Knowing my trust would stand the test of time;

You crushed the enemy of my soul in the final hour,

Your glory, Your might, Your unfathomable power.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Job by Ilya Repin 1869)