God Squeezes Every Drop Out of Our Trials

Our April showers mushroomed into a perpetual storm, didn’t they? In fact, they obliterated our beautiful May flowers. In light of that, as you contemplate a paltry fall harvest, a painful and perplexing thought may emerge. God squeezes every drop out of our trials. While this is neither comforting nor complex, the process enlightens.

And fully encourages all believers on their journey with God who must endure suffering.

The Furnace of Affliction

The Refiner’s fire is a popular topic in Christian circles. Job endured trials and spoke of coming “forth as gold” in Job 23:10. But it wasn’t until I began to contemplate Isaiah 48:10 that I realized refinement results from the havoc wreaked from many natural elements. God says as quoted by the prophet “See, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.”

All refinement requires endurance. God can use any situation to refine but He doesn’t necessarily orchestrate all the storms and furnaces we enter. This is occasionally difficult for some people to accept. Some want to blame God for every misfortune. Others view tragedies as evidence that our world lacks a God. Still others blame every bad thing that happens on Satan. But at the end of the day, we live in a broken world corrupted by the sin nature of Adam and Eve and everyone who followed in their footsteps. And because we don’t possess a divine perspective, we aren’t always going to know who’s behind the trial or temptation we are facing.

The One Sure Thing With Every Drop

One indisputable fact about trials:  God can always bring good out of bad. Paul writes, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.”

All believers are called by God. And He really can work good out of the most extreme tragedies and misfortunes. He lifted the barren Sarah from the pit of barrenness. In His good timing, He used her (along with Abraham) to father many nations. God used Samson’s misstep with the revelation of his source of strength. God empowered him one last time to crush the royal Philistine court and assorted bystanders. And I’m sure you (or someone you know) enjoyed a Romans 8:28 outcome in their life and testifies today how God used their suffering for His glory. These are the saints who well know what it means for God to extract every drop from their trials.

Metamorphosis Through Refinement With Every Drop

These testimonies can be deceiving upon first impressions. When Job was tempted, many of his contemporaries assumed he brought his troubles on himself and that he was being punished by God. Today when we read Job, it’s tempting for us to judge those people and say to ourselves, “How could they think that?” But I know in my own life, about 10 months ago, I felt I was walking closely with the Lord, and all of a sudden I found myself falling through the bottom of a trap door I never saw coming. How could this happen to me, I asked myself when I was regularly meeting with God in my quiet time, studying His word and serving Him in a variety of capacities? It was because God wanted to extract every drop.

That process was difficult for me to ensure. I believe He orchestrated my trial so I would be more acutely aware of my sin nature. He unearthed evidence of a buried weakness and forced me into a corner of reliance on Him to admit it, confess it, and lean into Him to work to overcome it.  Paul understood this kind of affliction all too well. In 2 Corinthians 12:7, Paul writes of a thorn in his side. He doesn’t elaborate on the thorn itself. “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it from me. But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'” He really did want every drop out of my trial and in His benevolence did not settle for less.

Ditch Speculation and Set Your Intention

I’ve been party to several conversations involving speculation about Paul’s thorn. Some people think it was a literal physical affliction. Others think it was something more closely related to sin nature. And honestly, I love it that we don’t know have a clue about its nature. So much the better for us: insert your particular thorn here and consider his words. That’s what I have done. And in doing that, I had a little epiphany. Each of us has a propensity toward certain sins and weaknesses. Whether the origin is from the body or the mind or both, only God can mitigate our situation. And eventually extract every drop from our trials.

The only thing that can cleanse us from our unrighteousness is the precious blood of the Lamb of God. And the minute we think that our walk with God has anything to do with an expectation of comfort and ease this side of eternity, as if we’d earned something, we are truly doomed. God saved me from myself as He threw me into a furnace of affliction so I could grasp how wide the chasm is between divine righteousness and my iniquities.

21 Drops

Naturally, perspective never comes during a trial. How can it? We have no objectivity then. As I struggled to remain in God’s presence, continually confessing and receiving His forgiveness, I kept imagining that the process was “almost over,” at least in this one area of my life. But like the onion that always has another layer, He keeps peeling away at the vegetable that is me. And the thorn is beginning to look more like a permanent fixture. So if you are in a trial right now and are pleading with God to end your suffering, take heart even though it hurts. He loves you so much He doesn’t want to shortchange your refinement. He wants to maximize your growth. And extract every drop.

It may look to us as if a test or trial really is almost over. We summarize what we have learned, journal what we’ve learned, and even testify to others. But only God can see the potential of our development. I recently learned that an “empty” bottle of wine has an average of 21 more drops inside it. That may not be a lot of volume compared to the bottle but it’s more than you would imagine it could contain.

God alone knows how much you can hold or take, how empty you can get, and your unique potential to grow and develop. Trust Him with the details as He works suffering and refinement to bring out the best in you. And even as He extracts every drop, the process we all must endure will be well worth it.