You Can Come Forth as Gold
Trials Can Refine Who You Become
Have you ever looked back on something difficult and realized it changed you?
Maybe you became more understanding because you knew what loneliness felt like.
Maybe a failure made you more humble.
Maybe struggling with something yourself helped you become less judgmental toward someone else.
Sometimes the experiences we would never choose become part of the process through which Jesus Christ changes us.
Job described that process with one powerful image:
“When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10).
At the time Job said those words, his problems were not over.
In fact, he admitted that he could not even understand what God was doing.
Job said he looked forward, backward, to the left, and to the right but could not perceive Him.
Then he said:
“But he knoweth the way that I take.”
Job could not see God.
But he trusted that God could see him.
Gold is refined through heat. As metal is heated, impurities can rise to the surface and be removed. The process can also make the metal stronger and prepare it for a greater purpose.
Trials can do something similar in our lives.
That does not mean every painful experience was directly caused by God.
Disease is not good.
Betrayal is not good.
Abuse, death, injustice, and sin are not good.
But none of those things are beyond the Savior’s power to redeem.
Jesus Christ can take something painful and use it to develop something holy.
A difficult experience can teach patience.
Grief can deepen compassion.
Weakness can teach us to rely more completely on Christ.
Being misunderstood can help us become gentler with people who feel alone.
A struggle may someday help us understand exactly what another person needs.
Joseph Smith learned this during his own suffering. After experiencing persecution, imprisonment, and betrayal, he explained that his trials helped him understand the suffering of others in a way he could not have understood before.
Trials do not automatically make us better.
They can make us bitter too.
The difference often comes from what we choose to do while we are passing through them.
Job said:
“My foot hath held his steps.”
He continued following God even when he could not understand Him.
That is refinement.
Not simply surviving the fire—but allowing Jesus Christ to shape us while we are in it.
Scripture
“He knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”
—Job 23:10
Reflection
How has one difficult experience already changed you?
What quality might Jesus Christ be helping you develop through something you are facing now?
Today’s Challenge
Choose one quality you would like Christ to help refine in you:
Patience.
Courage.
Compassion.
Humility.
Forgiveness.
Trust.
Write:
“Through this experience, Jesus Christ can help me become more __________.”
Then choose one small action today that develops that quality.
Christ-Centered Thought
Jesus Christ knows what it means to suffer.
He was rejected, betrayed, falsely accused, mocked, beaten, and crucified.
Yet through His suffering came the greatest victory in history.
Because of His Atonement and Resurrection, pain does not have to be wasted.
You may not understand what God is doing yet.
But He knows the way you take.
And with Jesus Christ, even the furnace can become part of the process through which you come forth as gold.
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