Not Yet!

Some people seem to be mercifully free of pain & suffering. Everything in life seems to be going well for them - loving spouse, adorable children, supportive in-laws, beautiful house, successful career, understanding boss, no financial burdens, no family squabbles, no health worries. And you wonder why all the bad things happen to you. You are hit by one calamity after another. Each new calamity is worse than the one just over. Is God angry with me? Does God care? How can a loving God allow me to go through such intense, unfair pain? Where is God when it hurts? You are discouraged. You can't go on anymore. You want to give up.

Dear beloved, the following story will lift up your spirit. It will bring God's comfort to your pain and relief to your suffering.

The trials of a teacup
(author unknown)

I haven't always been a teacup. There was a time in my life when I was just a lump of clay.

Then my Master took me and began to pat and mould and shape me. It was very painful and I begged Him to stop, but He only smiled and said, "Not yet!"

Then He placed me on a spinning wheel and I went round & round. I got so sick I thought I wasn't going to make it, but then He finally let me off. Just as I thought I was going to be all right, my Master put me in an oven. I didn't understand why He wanted to burn me. I yelled and begged for Him to stop, to let me out. I could see Him dimly through the glass in the oven door, but He only smiled, shook His head and said, "Not yet!"

Finally, He came and took me out of the oven. I sighed with relief. But, all of a sudden, my Master picked me up and started sanding and brushing me. He took a paintbrush and started painting colours all over me. The fumes were so strong I thought I was going to pass out. I pleaded with Him to stop, but He smiled and said, "Not yet!"

Then He placed me in another oven. This one was twice as hot as the first. I knew I would suffocate. I begged, I pleaded, I cried, but He only smiled and said, "Not yet!"

I began to feel there was no hope. I would never make it. I couldn't take it anymore. It was all over for me. I decided to give it all up.

Then the door swung open and my Master said, "Now!" He lifted me up and placed me on a shelf to rest. Later, He brought a mirror and told me to look. I could not believe my eyes. I had become a beautiful teacup.

Then my Master explained.

"I want you to understand that I knew it hurt when I patted and moulded you. I knew the spinning wheel made you sick. But if I had left you alone, you would have dried up and always would have been just a lump of clay. You would not have had any personality in your life."

"I knew it was hot when I put you in the first oven, but if I hadn't, you would have just crumbled."

"I knew it really bothered you to be brushed and painted, but if I hadn't, you would not have any colour in your life."

"Oh, how I knew the second oven was hard for you! But you see, if I hadn't put you there, you would not have been able to stand the pressures of life. Your strength would not have lasted, and you would not have survived for very long."

"So you see, when you thought it was all so very hard, I still had you in My care. I knew all along what you would be today. I had the finished product in mind from the day I first touched you!"

All of us have to go through pains in life. Each pain will help us to participate in the sufferings of Christ. Each pain will draw us closer to God. Each pain will help us see God in a new dimension. Without pain, our life will remain static & we will not have the opportunity to experience God in a new way. "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds." (James 1:2)

Philippians 1:6
"......He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

1 Peter 4:12-13
"Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you are participating in the sufferings of Christ so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed."

Isaiah 48:10
"See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction."

Isaiah 64:8
"Yet, O LORD, You are our Father. We are the clay, You are the Potter; we are all the work of Your hand."

Jeremiah 18:4b, 6b
".....so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him........like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in My hand."

nothing can separate us from the love of God,
sockkim