ISAIAH 48:10 – Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.

THEME OF THE DAY. POLISHING GOD’S TROPHIES. I must confess the theme of today’s nugget intrigues me. Yes, even as the author. I think all of us get the word picture. Perhaps we are taken down memory lane as a youth or an adult receiving a trophy or award for some achievement and displaying it in a prominent place in our homes. For me, the imagery draws me back to the all the Little League baseball and Pinewood Derby trophies that lined my parents’ fireplace mantle. They would get dusty and my faithful mom would polish their brass plates making them sparkle and shine. And they were there for all to see as I think my parents boasting more of them than me. Now take this into the spiritual realm.

Do we see ourselves as God’s “trophies of His grace” putting us on display for Him to boast of? Not in and of ourselves, but of His amazing grace? I think we get a glimpse of this boasting in the opening chapters of the book of Job – “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” (Job 1:6-8). One may see God “boasting” of Job before Satan.

We also get a picture of this unfolding in the first chapter of the book of Ephesians. The Apostle Paul writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:3-14). Notice the three references Paul makes to the praise of God’s glory and grace. Our salvation and subsequent glorification is to make much of God or to be trophies of His grace for all to see through eternity. Isn’t that thrilling? Yes, but now comes the theme of today’s nugget – “Polishing God’s Trophies.” Just like our literal trophies get dusty and need to be cleaned off, so do we in this life. We get “dusty” by sin, worldliness, and a host of other things dulling the “shine of Jesus” in our lives. And God will return the shine, or polish us and that through the refining fires of suffering and affliction.

As we go through suffering, begin to see it as “God’s polish” to remove the dross that keeps us from shining for His grace and His Son. If we do, we will learn to gladly submit and rejoice in our suffering knowing it is God’s work to “polish His trophy of grace” – us, His redeemed children.

PRAYER: “Father, help me to see myself as a trophy of Your grace with suffering being the polish that makes me shine.”

QUOTE: “Suffering is the sure way to purge us from ourselves that Christ may become our all in all in all of life”