Throughout the life human beings go through many hardships and difficulties. And the bible says that we are refined like gold and silver through the afflictions that we go through.

Proverbs 17:3 The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the heart.

Just as gold smith and silver smith refine the gold and silver and make them pure through the fire in a furnace, God is testing us and refining us through the furnace of afflictions and hardships and makes us pure and clean in other that we can enter the kingdom of heaven.

Isaiah 48:10 See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

Because of our sins and iniquities, we are unclean and impure in the eyes of God. Our eyes are turned always away from God, searching worldly things and pleasures. We are full of sins and evil thoughts. To refine us by getting rid of all the impurities from us, God puts us into many difficult circumstances. In those situations, God is searching us to find what is in our heart.

God searches in us whether we have complaint, grumbling and disobedience, or thanksgiving and obedience in us. When we have thankfulness and joy all the time in whatever circumstances we are, God will judge us as complete and perfect, who are worthy enough to enter heaven.

Through the tribulations, God wants to give us blessings.

Deuteronomy 8:2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.

Deuteronomy 8:15 He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. 16 He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you.

The purpose of God’s putting us into many difficult situations is to test us to see what is inside us and ultimately to give us blessings. Let us always have faith in God and follow God with a joyful mind all the time, giving thanks to God in whatever circumstances we are.