As Silver Refined, by Kay Arthur - Book Review

If you are weary of the deceiver taking your thoughts captive, or if you often allow your thought process to send you into a spiral of defeat, Kay Arthur’s magnificent book As Silver Refined: Answers to Life’s Disappointments, can help you break the cycle.  The core of this book centers on the truth that life’s disappointments are actually God’s appointments to make us more like Christ.

Kay Arthur explains that you must know how to handle disappointment head on, in the battlefield of the mind, before you find yourself slipping and spiraling downward into the deadly D’s – discouragement, dejection, depression, and  despair. It is essential to blast out  disappointment with biblical truth, and she provides insights that will change your perspective and help you practice taking every thought captive before it grows into a stronghold. 

She addresses the issues of failure, regret, stress, physical pain, emotional anguish, etc.  While thoroughly explaining the sovereignty of God and His character, she also provides tools for overcoming strongholds, learning victory over dejection and despair, and practicing the secrets to everyday endurance.  In 15 chapters, she applies Bible verses abundantly and sprinkles brief stories of her own humbling experiences that felt like failures at the time but were actually used by God to transform her character to be more like His. 

A study guide in the last third of the book would be a great resource for either a women’s Bible study or for personal use to examine Scripture and process the truth in relation to past, present, and future. The questions are thought-provoking and present great opportunity for lively discussion.

During the duration of time spent reading this book, I was repeatedly pummeled by disappointing circumstances beyond my control.  I clung to the thesis of this book and absorbed every word, which brought me comfort beyond measure.  This is among one of my most favorite books that I have ever read, perhaps because it was so timely. I want to soak up every single word and saturate myself so fully with trust in God’s sovereignty so that I transform my thinking of disappointments into His appointments.  I will be reading this book again and again.

Check out chapter 1: http://www.scribd.com/doc/53092241/As-Silver-Refined-by-Kay-Arthur-Chapter-1-Excerpt

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group in exchange for this review.

My Worries and God's Omnipotence

My occupation with multiple worries at one time means that I don’t have to worry about any single thing obsessively.  I can spread them out, switching the channel of my mind to a different fretful thought when one becomes too overwhelming.

Do not worry about tomorrow.

But what happens tomorrow could alter the destiny of many. So many things could go wrong, yet I feel powerless to stop any of them.   

Tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6:34)

Very true – so why do I waste my energy on the “what-if’s” when there is so much to deal with this day? I fool myself if I think I have control over any of it.  But if I start thinking like that, I just sit back and get cynical. 

Beth Moore says: “At the end of the day, people do what they want to do.  You can’t make them do something else. You can’t force them.  You can’t change them.  You can’t deliver them.  Only God can.  And that’s why He’s omnipotent and we’re not.” (So Long, Insecurity)

BEFORE the end of the day, I know that God uses me to influence, to bring about His will.  At the end of the day, I need to know that I walked close to Jesus, leaned on Him, followed in His steps. At the end of the day, I want to hear Him say “well done, good and faithful servant,” regardless of the outcome around me and regardless of the choices people make. 

We are meant to reflect His character, to show some faint reflection of each of His attributes.  Even omnipotence to some degree (perhaps without the omni part).  In Paul’s encouragement to Timothy to be faithful, he says in 2 Timothy 1:7 “God gives us a spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline.”  This is power expressed with control and a loving spirit.  Love is the goal of this dispensed power based on faith.  He gives us the power to bring about change, to alter the course of someone’s destiny, to bring about results.  He wants to bless us when we join Him in His work.

God is omnipotent and I am not. He has all the power to do whatever He decides He wants done.  The best part is that it is always consistent with His character – His holiness, His goodness, His love, and His grace.  He knows the passing of every sparrow.  He knows the number of hairs on my head.  This is a God who is in the details, a God who holds all the power, a God who cares more deeply than we can ever imagine.

Photo from  http://freeartisticphotos.com

One Way My Husband Will Never Be Like God

19 years ago today, I foolishly jumped into a commitment with a man I barely knew.  Having met him only 10 months prior, I only grasped a tiny fraction of who he was as I proclaimed that I would love and cherish him the rest of my life.  Only by the grace of God, he happened to be an even better man than I ever imagined at the time, because my historical choices of guys usually moved the other direction. 

Over the years, we both have changed – dare I say - almost to the point that we are not even the same people.  Again, only by the grace of God have we changed in ways that cause us to fall even more in love with each other, and despite each other too.

If I had married my husband knowing he’d never change, could I be happy? I might think I know everything about him by now, but periodically he surprises me.  The fact that he is also continually changing gives promise to adventure ahead rather than a life of complacency and boredom. 

So the fact that God never changes, is that a good thing?  Hebrews 13:8 claims Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  Is the sameness of Jesus boring?  Hardly!  I only know a tiny fraction of all that God is.  While it will take all of eternity for me to know Him, I know that He will only become more and more wonderful – and there will never be something disappointing to discover.

The fact that my husband is mutable and that God is immutable is one respect that they will never be alike, and this is strangely a perfect thing.