Trials and Pain<\/p>\n
The devil, things and people being what they are, it is necessary for God to use the hammer, the file and the furnace in His holy work of preparing a saint for true sainthood. It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.<\/p>\n
The Root of the Righteous, 157.
\n________________________________________<\/p>\n
Trials and Pain: The Sharp Blade of the Plow<\/p>\n
Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your
\nfallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes
\nand rains righteousness on you.
\n–Hosea 10:12<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe fallow field is smug, contented, protected from the shock of
\nthe plow and the agitation of the harrow…. But it is paying
\na terrible price for its tranquility: Never does it see the
\nmiracle of growth; never does it feel the motions of mounting
\nlife nor see the wonders of bursting seed nor the beauty of
\nripening grain. Fruit it can never know because it is afraid of
\nthe plow and the harrow.<\/p>\nIn direct opposite to this, the cultivated field has yielded
\nitself to the adventure of living. The protecting fence has
\nopened to admit the plow, and the plow has come as plows always
\ncome, practical, cruel, business-like and in a hurry. Peace has
\nbeen shattered by the shouting farmer and the rattle of
\nmachinery. The field has felt the travail of change; it has been
\nupset, turned over, bruised and broken, but its rewards come
\nhard upon its labors. The seed shoots up into the daylight its
\nmiracle of life, curious, exploring the new world above it. All
\nover the field the hand of God is at work in the age-old and
\never renewed service of creation. New things are born, to grow,
\nmature, and consummate the grand prophecy latent in the seed
\nwhen it entered the ground. Nature’s wonders follow the plow.
\nPaths to Power, 31-32.<\/p>\n“Lord, make me a cultivated field. I suspect the price will be
\nhigh, but I long to bear fruit for Your glory. Do the hard work
\nof the farmer in my life today. Amen.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trials and Pain The devil, things and people being what they are, it is necessary for God to use the hammer, the file and the furnace in His holy work of preparing a saint for true sainthood. It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply. The Root…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}