by A. W. Tozer
We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. (2 Corinthians 4:7-10)
Do you ever pause and ponder God's purpose in the pressures of our circumstances in life? If we cooperate with Him, God will use these for our spiritual growth and His glory. A. W. Tozer reminds us of His purpose in hammer, file and the furnace.
Praise God for the furnace. Praise God for the hammer, file and the furnace. The hammer is a useful tool. But if the nail had intelligence it could tell another side of the story. The nail knows the hammer only as an opponent, a brutal merciless enemy who lives to pound it into submission, to beat it down out of sight, to clinch it into place. That is the nail's view of the hammer. It is accurate except for one thing. The nail forgets that both it and the hammer are servants of the same workman. Let the nail but remember that the hammer is held by the workman and all resentment toward it will disappear. The carpenter decides whose head will be beaten next. And with what hammer shall be used in the beating. That is the sovereign right of the carpenter. When the nail has surrendered to the will of the workman and has gotten a little glimpse of those plans for its future it will yield to the hammer without complaint.
It is the master, not the file that decides what and how much shall be eaten away. . . .
The furnace is worst of all. It never relaxes its furry until it has reduced all to shapeless ashes. All that refuses to burn is melted into a mass of helpless matter without will or purpose of its own. When everything is melted that will melt and all is burned that will burn, then and not till then the furnace calms down and rests from its destructive furry. It is doubtful that God can bless any man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.
For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you. . . knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you. (2 Corinthians 4:11-12, 14)