Today's Forecast: Sunshine and Rain

Just as a honing stone sharpens a knife’s blade, so God hones us during life’s challenging circumstances, intense as they may be.

God proved to Satan that His servant, Job, would be steadfast and stay faithful while enduring insurmountable pain and loss. Paul and his co-workers “despaired even of life” (2 Corinthians 1:8), and God didn’t take away his life’s “thorn” (2 Corinthians 12:7–10), yet they trusted God. Paul was confident that God completes the good work He starts in us (Philippians 1:6).

The sun will shine, and rain will fall; both are necessary for God’s creation. We enjoy the sunshine until it’s too hot and the rainfall until it’s too much. But God, who sets the weather patterns, controls the conditions we face daily. A fruitful garden needs sunshine and rain for growth and stability—we do too. God wants His children to live productively, producing fruit. With life’s rainy and sunny days, God makes our lives complete, setting us firmly, giving us strength to bear what we must, forming a firm foundation that this world’s fears, heat, floods, or winds cannot shake or move: “But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you. To Him be glory and dominion forever and ever” (1 Peter 5:10–11).