Tried by Fire

Do you think God does not love you
When you're passing beneath the rod?
Do you grow a bit discouraged;
Think the road is most too hard?

Oh, my brother, do you not know
That our Father has a plan
By which to purge and purify
And perfect this race of men?

Think it not strange, said brother Peter
When come the fiery trial;
It may come in fierce temptations
That will call forth self-denial.

It may be in deepest sorrow,
Sad bereavement, or in pain.
Your friends may all forsake you;
God will work it for your gain.

The trial of your faith, said he,
Is of value more than gold.
His fire is burning out the dross
From His chosen and His called.

Let us stay right in the furnace
Though the flames seem hard to take.
God, in His Love, is sending them
That he a perfect vessel make.

He is calling out His remnant;
Seed with which to plant again.
He must test and try each vessel,
Those to find who will remain.

Would you like for him to use you?
Would you like to add your voice
To this new day trumpet sounding?
Then the fire must be your choice.

If any dross or stain remain
Then the gold cannot be pure.
It will not reflect His image
And you never will endure.

Go through, as faithful Abraham,
For he proved his love by test;
Climbing up old Mount Moriah
On God's altar laid his best.

Think of those three Hebrew boys;
They loved God with all their hearts;
Yet each was tested by the fire
Nor from it's pain refused a part.

God saw He could count them faithful
In whate'er their lot might be.
He wants to prove the same of you
So from His testing do not flee.

--Poem by Reba McMurry