The Sweat

Do you sweat or perspire?  If you lived during Victorian times, you heard “Horses sweat, men perspire, and women glow.”  From what I read, the Oxford English dictionary didn’t list the word “glow” as a synonym for “sweat” or “perspire.”  The word “glow” does, however, have a much more delicate and refined sound!

Sweat, perspire, or glow – call it what you will; it happens in the heat.  Why, I can produce “skin vapors” reading the newspaper!  Believers tend to be opposed to pain, sorrow, and tears, preferring a much happier state of being.  Through Isaiah, God spoke to a disobedient Israel, calling them obstinate, idolatrous, and rebellious.  Just as a father corrects a child, for the sake of His own glory, God put His people on the anvil and used a hammer.  “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.” (Isaiah 48:10)  Oh, the complaining, depression, and weakening faith the furnace generates!  Charles H. Spurgeon wrote, “Some of you are like ferns. You only flourish in the damp and in the shade; too much sunlight would not be good. Your Master knows that if He put you where you would like to be, it would be deadly.”  [What!  No AC!]  James writes, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing the testing of your faith produces endurance.” (1:2-3)  I don’t know for sure but I will conclude sweat glands produce … sweat.  Of this I am certain, however: a little PERSPIRATION (or SWEAT) in God’s refining fire produces a righteous GLOW and I’m eternally good with that!

Dear Lord,

Give me a spirit of total submission to the difficulties I face so You can produce in me something holy and beautiful.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.