As Silver Refined: Learning to Embrace Life's Disappointments

I think it is no coincidence that this book came to me via LTER at this particular time. On May 22, an F-5 tornado in Missouri leveled most of my community, my home, our family vehicles, and did a number on our faith and family life.

Someone going through a deep, dark time of testing doesn't want to hear platitudes, "three easy steps to miracles," or cute-and-quick slogans. Kay Arthur offers none of those things, for which I am deeply grateful.

The author makes no promises except one: God is faithful and He develops His character in you through times of testing. She supports her statements well with Scripture, and encourages the reader to hang on to God with tooth and toenail without belittling those whose grip is failing.

This show more particular edition is accompanied by a chapter-by-chapter Bible study that leads the reader to dig deeper and read further. Well-written, not trite, not shallow ... just what I needed to help me sharpen my claws and keep climbing out of the pit. show less

Two years ago, I would have loved this bible study. Kay Arthur always lovingly shows you biblical promises that help in whatever situation she’s writing about and she does that here also. But my belief has changed since then.

Kay makes some wonderful points. And gives appropriate verses to look up to help with depression and/or disappointment.

(Zech 13:9 [TS98])
“And I shall bring the third into fire, and refine them as silver is refined, and try them as gold is tried. They shall call on My Name, and I shall answer them. I shall say, ‘This is My people,’ while they say, ‘יהוה is my Elohim.’ ”

‘יהוה is Hebrew – the Name of YaHUaH. His name is important!

(Lam 3:55-57 [TS98])
I called on Your Name, O יהוה, from the show more lowest pit.
You have heard my voice, Do not hide Your ear from my groaning, From my outcry!
You drew near on the day I called on You; You said, “Do not fear!”

P71 – Kay quotes Psalm 119 vs 75, 67, and 71. She gets out of these passages that “it is good that we are afflicted” without bringing up the point that they were afflicted as a consequence of not following His instructions. The entirety of Psalm 119 has to do with following His precepts, His instructions, His law.

(Ps 119:75 [TS98])
I know, O יהוה, That Your right-rulings are righteous, And in trustworthiness You have afflicted me.
(Ps 119:67 [TS98])
Before I was afflicted I myself was going astray, But now I have guarded Your word.
(Ps 119:71 [TS98])
It was good for me that I was afflicted, That I might learn Your laws.

Recognize YaHUaH is sovereign. Kay says to study Genesis - chapters 37, 39 through 50 – the life of (Yosef) Joseph. (see, they managed to transliterate his name just fine) I agree with this – if anyone should have been depressed and angry, it would be Joseph. He had every right to be, didn’t he? And yet, how did he react? We should study his life and his reactions.

But as you can see, I have problems with the errors in this book concerning the Name. This is very easy to find out. I have to wonder why bible teachers intersperse their books with Hebrew words but yet somehow, they never cover the fact that the Creator’s Name has been left out of every translation except “The Scriptures” and” The Besorah” editions. He does give us his name – YaHUaH. It is not “God”, it is not “LORD”. These are pagan names. And every other pagan deity name has been “translated” correctly over to the English.
How can you study Scriptural Hebrew and not find this out and not want to share it with everyone!

We are to say His Name.
(Exod 20:7 [TS98]) The Third Commandment
“You do not bring the Name of יהוה your Elohim to naught, for יהוה does not leave the one unpunished who brings His Name to naught.”

Study His Word for yourself – Don’t just believe what you are told in a book, in a bible study, or a pulpit.
Get a Strong’s Concordance.
Get a Hebrew Dictionary and a copy of the Scriptures in Hebrew.
Download TheWord.com – take a look at the difference between KJV, NIV, TS98 (The Scriptures).
Check out YouTube channels: MessengeroftheName and FossilizedCustom show less

As Silver Refined met me at a very deep level. Kay Arthur writes intelligently about trials, difficulties, depression and despair...and the way out for people who will trust in our loving God. This is not an easy book...it is a book that made me examine myself and begin to make changes. For anyone suffering with discouragement, depression, demotivation and other mental and emotional strongholds, I highly recommend reading, studying, APPLYING and taking a chance on something hard, but worthwhile.
Arthur includes a study guide, but also asks you to stop as you read the book to begin the work of getting out of the doldrums and finding a breeze to move you to new worlds (and maybe just the old familiar one renewed!) where life is worth the show more pain, where life can be lived again. show less

****Please note, I received this book as a free Goodreads Giveaway****

Anyone who is religious SHOULD NOT read this review lest they be offended by it in some way.

I feel bad, but I only made it through about 14 pages of this book before I put it down. It's my fault for not paying closer attention when reading the blurb for the book. I thought that this was more along the lines of a self help book when I first read the blurb to enter the giveaway.

Then when I actually received the book, I read further and saw that it's more religious (deeply so) and I was unnerved at the prospect of reading it. I wanted to give it a shot, because I won the book after all so I might as well, but I just couldn't do it.

I am not a religious person. I would show more say that I'm more spiritual if anything, and overall without really labeling myself too much, I'd rather just say I was open minded. I have been to church maybe once or twice, and I've always felt uncomfortable being there.

In college, I was involved for a while with a group that was very much into proseltyzation. I thought they were just a nice group of people to hang out with at first, and then once we did start hanging out, I noticed that all conversations centered on God and Church. It bugged me but they were nice so I wanted to be friendly and at the time I had some questions. Then they started pressuring me about going to church with them, and doing bible study.

I did the bible study, but one particular lesson stopped me from hanging out with them after this... I have no idea the section or the passage in particular but it was something to do with a person having a disability because they were being punished for their sins.

When the passage was read, everyone in the group turned to look at me and the leader of the group asked me how I felt about fulfilling the punishment for my sins. (I have Cerebral Palsy.)

I didn't know what to say and stammered something, when I should have just walked out. It felt like they were judging me right there, doubly so, because they knew more of the bible and the implications of the passages than I did.

This book demonstrates some of the same ideals they held like certain elements of modern life being evil, and to be avoided.

Plus I felt like I needed to have a bible right in front of me to help decipher all the passages that were referenced.

I suppose I thought that this would be somewhat lighter, with a few passages sprinkled in for reference maybe, rather than having a passage stated every few lines.

I will not rate this out of fairness for not having actually read it. Definitely a reminder to myself to pay closer attention to the giveaway blurbs.

And to anyone who read this review and was offended, I won't apologize because I did put a disclaimer at the top and you chose to read ahead. show less

Everyone is guaranteed to be disappointed and discouraged at some point in their life. Kay Arthur helps us to see not just how to get past these things, but how to use them to further our hope, faith and joy.
This book doesn't directly confront any one problem, but is broad enough to address any kind of disappointments, from fleeting and shallow setbacks, to truely deep hurts that life can contain.
Anyone with even a little faith will find themselves strengthened by the messages contained inside, the poignant and firm reminders of God's love for each and every one of us, and His plan for us.
When we discover how to shift our perception we can focus more on Christ, and less on our own selfish desires, our failures or ignorance.
Always with a show more loving tone, Kay guides us through the Bible and helps us to see how we can go through this shifting until we can walk away from depression and truely have joy in life.
This was an insightful and lovely read, and left me with a pleasant feeling of hope and joy with life.
There are Bible study guides included for each chapter to allow the reader to have more faithful study experiences and a deeper communication with God. show less

You can be defeated by life's unavoidable disappointments or you can become stronger because of them. You can learn to break he cycle of disappointments or even despair with a faith that recognizes the trials of life as tools that God uses to make you as silver refined.

The subject matter is of this book applies to all of us. In As Silver Refined, Kay Arthur show us how we go down a spiral of increasingly depressing D's (disappointment, discouragment, dejection, despair, demoralization) if we do not respond to disappointments in God's way. We see, though, that if we do not respond properly and go down this depressing path, God in His grace and mercy gives us hope to come out of the pit that we dig for ourselves. God uses those things that we see as diappointments to refine us as fire refines silver. Kay shows us from God's word how we are to respond to the disappointments of life so that we are refined.
The only draw back I had in reading this book was that sometimes I got lost in the examples and show more stories she told from her life and others' lives, but that may be my ADD in action! show less