“We were excessively pressed beyond our power, so as to despair even of living. ... that we
should not have our trust in ourselves,
but in God who raises the dead.”
2 Corinthians 1:8-9 JND
Trials are “temporary” tools in the hands of our loving Father. They are used for the purpose of achieving His goals in and through us, goals which are more amazing than we could ever ask or think.
Here’s a little illustration that may help in our understanding of this. When you are making a frosting rose, you put the shapeless blob of frosting into a very confined area: a strong bag. Taking this bag of frosting in your hands, you apply pressure, just the right amount but way too much pressure for the frosting to stay comfortably inside the bag! There is only one very narrow metal trapezoidal “way of escape” for the frosting, a passage with a shape specifically chosen to determine the “outcome.” If the frosting had feelings, it would probably be utterly miserable! It would really hate its present circumstances of being so confined. It would fear the pressure and pain of being forced out into the “unknown” through the very narrow, ridged, rather oddly-shaped “hole in the bag.” For the frosting, the whole ordeal would be an absolutely painful and exhausting trial. But, as the creator and designer of the frosting rose, your perspective is very different! In your hands, with just the right pressure, and with the slow, gentle turning of the tiny pedestal onto which the frosting is directed in carefully wrapped layers, a beautiful rose takes shape! The goal of it wasn’t the bag or the pressure — those were only a means to the desired end! Absence of enough pressure would not have created the desired form of frosting once outside of the bag, and the “under-developed” strip of frosting wouldn’t have been suitable for the rose you had in mind. Too much pressure could have burst the bag, destroyed the design, and in the end there would be no delicate, perfectly-shaped rose. Neither overpressure nor underpressure would have achieved your desired goal! You controlled the pressure while your focus the whole time was the forming of a lovely, life-like rose. Without the “painful” confinement and the pressure that the frosting needed to pass through, the rose would never have been beautifully formed.
Yes, our trials can often be overwhelming to us, but the goal isn’t to destroy and crush us, but to teach us the secret of totally relying on God and trusting Him in them. He is in perfect control! He presses us in His hands for a purpose of creating beauty in us which will glorify His name through us (just as you are “glorified” by the beautiful frosting roses that you make). When we see the big picture, we learn that there is joy to be found in the trial as we look with Him to the purpose and the end! And so, “Sweet Frosting,” in the trials and testings of life, let’s trust the Heart that has fully orchestrated them, and the Hands that are executing every intricate detail of a “masterpiece” that He has already seen in His mind.