NOVEMBER 10 - Crowded to Christ

NOVEMBER 10 - Crowded to Christ     In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. — 1 PETER 1:6 – 7     Soon after a wartime marriage, Margie Hamilton's husband was killed. Then a little later her baby was born with a cruel deformity. After about forty operations, poverty followed. Still she said, 'All this trouble has crowded me to Christ. It's simply mud around the gold.' "     I don't know who Margie Hamilton was, but this little story is as precious as gold. It's easy to run happily and willingly into God's arms, but I praise God for the trials and pain that literally crowd me to Christ. It's one reason I'm glad for this wheelchair. If I were on my feet, I'd either be checking out the sales or heading for the tennis court, coffee-klatching with too many girlfriends or flicking through daytime soaps. So I greatly rejoice in the "all kinds of trials" that accompany my wheelchair; it is headaches and hardships that thrust me flat on my face before the throne of grace where I find divine help (Hebrews 4:16). Sometimes the help God gives is an increased measure of faith — I am able to believe God more, as well as act on it. This is what makes faith golden!     I may feel weary and tired now, but one day the mud and dirt of my earthly heartaches will be washed away, revealing the gold of refined faith. Thank you for the reminder, Mrs. Hamilton.     What circumstances are crowding you to Christ right now? Can you "rejoice greatly" that these things force you to lean on your Lord? Recognize that the testing of your faith is more precious than refined gold.     Thank you, God, for crowding me into the arms of your Son, Jesus Christ. May I learn to see my troubles as merely "mud around the gold."

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