A bar of iron worth $5.00 when worked into horseshoes is worth $10.00. If made into needles it is worth $350.00. If into pen-knife blades, it is worth $3,250.00. If into springs for watches, it is worth $250,000.00. What a drilling the poor bar must undergo to be worth this! But the more it is manipulated, the more it is hammered, and passes through the fire, and is beaten, and pounded, and polished, the greater its value.
May this parable help us to be silent, still and long-suffering. Those who suffer most are capable of yielding most, and it is through pain that God is getting the most out of us, for His glory and the blessing of others.
“I will show him how great things he must suffer for My name’s sake,” was said of Paul after his conversion. (Acts 9:1616For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. (Acts 9:16)). It will be all right some day; we shall see it and be satisfied.
“I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dross, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him.” Philippians 3:8, 98Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 9And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: (Philippians 3:8‑9).