Tuesday, July 12, 2011

As Silver Refined

As Silver Refined: Learning to Embrace Life's Disappointments by Kay Arthur
Random House, 1998
Trade Paperback, 356 pages
ISBN-13: 9781400073481
nonfiction
very highly recommended
 
Description:
Are you disappointed that life isn't turning out like you planned? How do you respond when your husband or wife tramples your emotions? When your boss fires you unexpectedly? When you lose your life’s savings? When the child you’ve loved and prayed for turns his back on you and your values? When disappointments like these smash their way into your life, you may want to scream, “How could God let this happen?”
But what if God didn’t just “let it happen”? What if the things you call disappointments are really His appointments — events He is using to make you more like Christ? What if He is using your disappointments like flames to melt and burn away the undesirable elements in your life, leaving you pure and radiant — like refined silver?
You can be defeated by life’s unavoidable disappointments, or you can become stronger because of them. Kay Arthur paints a graphic picture of the dangerous downward spiral of disappointment that can lead to discouragement, depression, or even despair. But you can learn to break that cycle and embrace disappointment with a faith that recognizes the trials of life as tools that God uses to make you — as silver refined — a reflection of His goodness.
 
My Thoughts:
 
In As Silver Refined: Learning to Embrace Life's Disappointments, Kay Arthur is instructional, compassionate, and encouraging to those who are going through some kind of crushing disappointment. The book includes the text, to page 286, and then a study guide with thirteen lessons that correspond to the text.
 
As you read Kay Arthur's books you can really feel that she has a heart for God and for teaching others the truths she has found in the Word of God. Her faith is uplifting and offers some real encouragement to those going through life's disappointments. She always makes it clear that God loves his people no matter what and He wants us to come running to Him or stay close to Him when trials hit. He will not forsake us.
 
Instead of focusing on our disappointments, we need to look at them as His appointments, and opportunities for our refinement. God would not allow it in our lives if He did not have plans to use it for the good according to His plan and purpose for our lives. This book will help Christians who are facing disappointments and trials of all kinds and sizes to keep the focus where it belongs, on Christ.
Very Highly Recommended
 
Disclosure: I received my copy through a Goodreads giveaway.  
 
Quotes:
 
Satan will attack your mind with imaginations and thoughts that are contrary to what God says in His Word. These ideas and perceptions will be a perversion of His truth about you. These thought will be nothing more than disinformation and distortion...."bring into captivity every though to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)...Do you realize that how you think really determines how you behave? So consider your thought patterns. Ponder how they affect you. "Ponder the path of thy feet" (Proverbs 4:26) pg 19
 
Satan chooses the mind for his battleground because he understands so well the principle laid down in the Word, that as a man thinketh so he is. pg. 20
 
Never allow a penetration. Don't allow the enemy to get his foot in the door. If you do, he'll have the leverage to push his way far deeper into your life. pg. 21
 
God doesn't say the situation is good, but He does promise that because He's your God and you're His child, He will bring good from it. pg. 28
 
Just remember: We may be despised and rejected now, but someday we'll sit with Him on His throne. Someday we'll reign with Him. And someday every knee shall bow before Him and every tongue confess that He is Lord... pg. 82
 
But someday we must all stand before the judgment of Christ, "that each one may be recompensed for his deeds  in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad" (2 Corinthians 5:10). pg 167
 
...before you go to any human counselor, you should go to God in prayer. Pour out your situation to Him - it would be good to write it out. Then be still and know that He is God. Cease striving, let go, relax and know that because He is God and because you cried to Him for help, He will let you know where, if any place, you are to go and what you are to do. He will impress upon your mind persistently, and He will bear witness to it through the Word and through other godly people. pg. 220

1 comment:

Jane said...

I would like to read this.

I love your reviews, Lori. Have I told you that?
Love,
Jane