CHASTENING MAKES US CHASTE
 
PAIN, suffering, adversity, and affliction exercise a ministry of cleansing and renewal. It is where they are crushed that flowers re-lease their richest fragrance. Gold is flung into the furnace to reach its full purity and value. God allows fiery trials so that impurities such as obstinacy, impatience, and self-centered-ness might be burned out. Trials sweep away the debris that has cluttered life with things that hide God.
The shore is swept clean by the storm, and we get a new experience of the ocean of God's grace. Our eyes are drawn from the glamour of sin to the beauty of godliness. Our ears become less attentive to earth's music, and more attuned to the "Hallelujah Chorus." Our goals shift from earthly tinsel to heavenly treasure. Our feet incline less to the byways of the world and more to the road that leads home.

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