Monday, December 14th. Today's cherished Nugget from guest blogger Pastor Bill.

Have you ever seen a blacksmith work with a piece of iron? He holds it in the fire to soften it and make it pliable. That is exactly why God permits the testing of our faith by temptations and trials. He wants us to acquire patience, to acquire pliability. If you and I are constantly out of the fire of affliction, we become stiff and useless.

God wants to reshape us according to His image, for in the fall of Adam, we lost our divine shape, our divine image.

I am not so crazy about going through the fires of affliction, but I do find that I many times need the refining to become patient and therefore to become more useful to Him. The apostle Paul in says it like this:

“Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”
(Hebrews 12:11)

"God, help me to remember in trials that You are ever with me for my good.
Amen."

Remember, the clay does not tell the potter what to make.