Romans 5:3-5 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us – they help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation. And this expectation will not disappoint us. For we know how dearly G-d loves us, because He has given us the Ruach haKodesh to fill our hearts with His love.

In what way is G-d using a trial to refine you right now?

Are you running from or avoiding G-d’s refining pressure, or learning from it?

A sure way to cause offense is with your big mouth! Will Rogers once wrote “So live that you wouldn’t be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip.

Yeshua expects us to guard what comes out of our mouth. ”When He was being beaten and ultimately killed for sins He didn’t even commit, He gave us the perfect example of how we are to respond;

Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet He never said a word. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, He did not open his mouth. 

Why was He silent?

Because it was the will of G-d for these things to happen to Him and He was being obedient. How about you?

1 Peter 4:12-14,19 Dear friends, don't be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad – because these trials will make you partners with Messiah in His suffering, and afterward you will have the wonderful joy of sharing His glory when it is displayed to all the world. Be happy if you are insulted for being a believer, for then the glorious Ruach of G-d will come upon you. So if you are suffering according to G-d's will, keep on doing what is right, and trust yourself to the G-d who made you, for He will never fail you.

If people try to offend you and by your response you bring shame instead of glory to G-d, then how will they ever see G-d at work?

Proverbs 18:19-21 It's harder to make amends with an offended friend than to capture a fortified city. Arguments separate friends like a gate locked with iron bars. Words satisfy the soul as food satisfies the stomach; the right words on a person's lips bring satisfaction. Those who love to talk will experience the consequences, for the tongue can kill or nourish life.

James 3:1-10 Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the body of believers, for we who teach will be judged by G-d with greater strictness. We all make many mistakes, but those who control their tongues can also control themselves in every other way. We can make a large horse turn around and go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. And a tiny rudder makes a huge shi p t urn wherever the pilot wants it to go, even though the winds are strong. So also, the tongue is a small thing, but what enormous damage it can do. A tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is full of wickedness that can ruin your whole life. It can turn the entire course of your life into a blazing flame of destruction, for it is set on fire by hell itself. People can tame all kinds of animals and birds and reptiles and fish, but no one can tame the tongue. It is an uncontrollable evil, full of deadly poison. Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it breaks out into curses against those who have been made in the image of G-d.  And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right! 

REMEMER THIS: G-d did not have the Scriptures written down because He had nothing else to do or to entertain Himself. He wrote them because He loves us! Follow Him and His written Word and your life WILL be blessed!

This is why we constantly need to seek forgiveness and need to ask G-d daily for His help.

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