"The Flame Shall Not Hurt Thee"

My favorite verse of Hymn #85, How Firm a Foundation, is the fifth verse:

When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,

My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply.

The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design

Thy dross to consume, thy dross to consume,

Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

I like this verse because it talks about the purpose of trials, but as I explained it to a few friends, I noticed that it also suggests one of the limitations of trials. The verse says that "the flame [trials] shall not hurt thee," but they do. We experience painful trials all the time. Yet, the pain doesn't last. At least, not eternally.

We have a mortal perspective, and from our perspective, the trials we experience are serious and damaging, but it's possible that God has a different perspective on the trials He puts us through. I know that God knows how we feel, but He also knows how briefly we'll feel that way and how soon we'll feel much better for having experienced the trial than we would have ended up feeling had we not experienced it.

Our trials are, ultimately, for our benefit. Worst case scenario, they give us some temporary discomfort. They cannot affect our eternal destiny in any negative way, unless we react badly to them. God didn't design our trials to hurt us needlessly. In fact, if we look at it from an eternal perspective, it's possible that don't truly hurt us at all. Because God loves us and always does what's best for us, He designed our trials to help us, not to hurt us.