The Painful Trial

1 Peter 4:12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.

As incense, when it is put into the fire, gives greater aroma; or as spice, when it is pounded and beaten, smells sweeter; as the earth, when it is torn up with the plow, becomes more fertile; the seed in the ground, after frost and snow and winter storms, blossoms into new life, the closer the vine is pruned to the stalk, the greater grapes it yields; the grape, when it is most pressed and beaten, makes the sweetest wine; and linen, when it is washed and wrung and beaten, is made so fairer and whiter: even so the children of God receive great benefit by persecution; for by it God washes and scours and educates and nurtures them, so that through many tribulations they may enter into their rest.