Tough Times Are God’s Way Of Transforming You Into A Diamond

Like the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly, it may take a long time of darkness and struggle until we emerge beautified, and it may not be until the very end of our journeys this side of eternity. But it will be more than worth it.

Elsewhere, Peter says that these trials test our faith just as fire refines gold (1 Peter 1:7). In the book of Isaiah, God says, “I have tested you in the furnace of affliction” (Isaiah 48:10).

The Bible often compares trials to a metal refiner’s fire that burns away the impurities. Peter said, “These troubles come to prove that your faith is pure. This purity of faith is worth more than gold.”16 A silversmith was asked, “How do you know when the silver is pure?” He replied, “When I see my reflection in it.” When you have been refined by

the hardships we suffer in this world are what, unfortunately, make us wiser, humbler, softer, kinder, more loving.

Therefore we do not give up. d Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person e is being renewed day by day. 17 For our momentary light affliction f is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. g 18 So we do not focus on what is seen, h but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is u