Pages

Friday, January 20, 2012

A Book Review: As Silver Refined

If you have been reading this blog lately, you have seen this title by Kay Arthur come up in several posts. It was the book of the year for me. Below I will attempt to tell you why I loved the book, but reading it for yourself would do a better job.

A Book Review: As Silver Refined: Answers to Life's Disappointments- Kay Arthur

To say that I was challenged by As Silver Refined would be to say the Eiffel Tower is tall. That is a "duh" statement. In fact, it was the most challenging book I read all year (I started it in 2011).There is no doubt that God had motives for putting As Silver Refined in my hands. My thought was, "Hey, I love Kay Arthur. I'll pick this book for my review"- typical of my planning. However, God knew that I desperately needed to know that His hands were all over my life's disappointments- I was swimming, or drowning, in them.

The book begins with a description of the works of a Silver Smith. He is patient and thorough in removing all the impurities from his silver. {At this point, I was already captivated}How does he check his progress in removing impurities? He bends over his silver to check for his reflection (p 2-3) . Did you catch that? He is looking for his reflection. If his reflection is not clear, he simply heats up the fire to release more impurities (p 3). The heat cause the impurities to rise to surface to be removed by the Silver Smith (p 3). Arthur did an incredible job at describing the process of refining silver. You quickly realize the way it parallels to our lives with Christ. Arthur goes on to list five Deadly D's: disappointment, discouragement, dejection, despair, and demoralization (p 13).  Through the book, Arthur shows how easy it is to spiral down from disappointment to demoralization if disappointment is not dealt with correctly. Disappointments happen. It's how we handle the heat that matters. She says that we need to look at disappointments as God's appointments. By removing the "D" from disappointment and replacing it with an "H", you change "disappointment" to "His appointment" (p 28). As the heat increases, God is refining His people by removing their impurities. Fire is required to release the impurities in silver and in the lives of Christians. 

I wish I could accurately express to you how timely this book was for me. As I read, I realized just how far down I had gone. I was past disappointment. My feet were planted somewhere between dejection and despair. I say that with all honesty. Sure, I believed that God knew where I was and what I was going through, but it made no sense to me. I wondered how He could do that to me, as if He was out to hurt me, and didn't He have good plans for me? My mind was focused on my disappointments, not His hand. It took reading As Silver Refined  to understand what was going on. Arthur uses verse after verse from the Word to point her readers to truth. I had been blinded from truth, by my own doing. I say all of that to say this, please read As Silver Refined. Add it to your yearly reading list. Even if you are not in a place of disappointment, you probably know someone who is. You can gain understanding and knowledge that could help someone else. Just a thought. Again, I can not brag on As Silver Refined enough. It was truly season altering for me.

Let me know if you have the opportunity to read As Silver Refined. I would love to hear your take on it.

*I was given a free copy of As Silver Refined by Kay Arthur from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review

In His Name,
Jennifer

No comments: