Jeremiah 29:14 "I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive."
If you asked a sculptor what techniques would achieve smooth edges on a hard surface he'd tell you that eroding it with a sharp tool that has a rough exterior would get you those results. Sometimes God uses the same kind of abrasive techniques to chip away everything in us that is not from Him to make us the people of God he plans for us to be. He hammers through the very foundations of the comfort zones that we build for ourselves and takes us through unpleasant times as part of His heavenly parenting (Hebrews 12:7 "It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?")
The Lord our Sanctifier (Jehovah M'Kaddesh) uses afflictions to build our endurance and to create in us a Christ-dependant character so that we learn to put our hope of deliverance in Him (Romans 5:3-4 "...knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,"). Nevertheless, our God promises that such chastising is not forever and certainly not meant to condemn us or forsake us. He assures us that He will surely redeem and deliver us in His unending love (Lamentations 3:31-33 "For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.")
Just as a sculptor does not stop using his hands on the model until it has taken perfect shape, neither does our God take His hands off of us until we are chiselled. Throughout the sculpting process He is right beside us and when we come into the awareness of His abiding presence with us we'll realize that no calamity, no disaster, no sickness, nothing can overtake us (Isaiah 43:2 "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.")
Testing periods are just that. God leads us through them to scan for bugs in our system, fix them and make us the best version of ourselves in Him!
God Bless.
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