REFINING - 4 AREAS OF TESTING

Isaiah 48:10 (New International Version)

10 See, I have refined you, though not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

Isaiah 1:25 (New International Version)

25 I will turn my hand against you;
I will thoroughly purge away your dross
and remove all your impurities.

(1) TEST OF LOVE

♥ Trials and tribulations can be a test of our love. They can reveal whom or what we love most in our lives. They reveal our priorities and desires. The Lord wants us to love Him more than anybody else or anything else.

Romans 8:38-41 (New International Version)

38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(2) TEST OF FAITH

♥ Do we believe in God even in the midst of pain and suffering? Do we believe in the promises of God even when everything looks impossible?

1 Peter 1:6 (New International Version)

6In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

(3) TEST OF OBEDIENCE

♥ Are we willing to obey god even when He commands you is to do what we do not like or what we wish to avoid?

Hebrews 5:8 (New International Version)

8Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered

(4) TEST OF SACRIFICE

♥ He tests the level of our willingness to sacrifice for Him.

John 12:24-26 (New International Version)

24I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me

Galatians 2:20 (New International Version)

20I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 6:14 (New International Version)

14May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which^[a] the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.