I have read a lot of books in the last year trying to find how to deal with the struggles, disappointments and looking for answers to "Why God?". Kay Arthur was a new writer to me and the title, "As Silver Refined" seemed to capture my attention. And once I started reading it, I can say it cut to the heart and stripped away some old theology that I had carried around all my life.
The Bible tells us how to live and gives us great insight into how to handle problems. Not to take any thing away from the Word of God, but it is summed up by many as, "Trust God, He will provide", and in some extreme cases, "Name it and Claim it", or as I like to say, "Blab it and Grab it!"
What is so often missing in a Christians devotion and teaching is the ability to accept the truth that God is allowing all the disappointments and trials in your life. The job lose, the broken marriage, the sickness and even death of a loved one, God has allowed.
No one likes to think of God as the one who allows the bad things to happen in our life, that God would have a hand in such terrible things. To dismiss this idea is to question God's Sovereignty. And that theology is causing many a Christian to throw in the towel and give up.
The book is great, easy to read and well thought out. I know "As Silver Refined" was a God anointed pick for my life. There are so many great quotes, but the one that stands out to me the most is about disappointments. To paraphrase, Disappointments are His Appointments.... replace the D with an H, and add a space between the s and the a and you get His Appointments. In God's Sovereignty, he knew the choice you would make, knew the places you would be and made a way to help you through the trials.
“I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review”.
