Warren Wiersbe said, “A realist is an idealist who has gone through the fire and been purified. A skeptic is an idealist who has gone through the fire and been burned.”
Do you know what the difference is? It’s not the fire, the heat, or the duration. It’s the attitude you bring into it. When you look back on life’s unpleasant events, you can choose to focus on what you learned from the ordeal, or you can choose to see it only as a bad experience.
In every trial, every problem, and every difficult situation, God is seeking to teach us something new. He wants to take us to a higher place. Maybe it’s a chance to exercise a bolder faith. Maybe it’s an opportunity to identify a harmful behavior that must be abandoned. Or perhaps it’s a chance to practice perseverance. The lesson is always there in difficult situations. We can choose to be purified and made holy, or we can allow ourselves to become burned and bitter.
The next time you find yourself in the fire, ask yourself: What is God trying to teach me through this experience? That question alone can make the difference between becoming refined and becoming resentful.
Daniel wrote, “Many will be purified, cleansed and refined by these trials. But the wicked will continue in their wickedness, and none of them will understand. Only those who are wise will know what it means.” (Daniel 12:10)
Faith. Delivered to your inbox.