The Refiner's Fire

Have you felt as though you were going through the fire, because of the things happening in your life? Have things which happen to you and around you caused you to flare up, feel frustration, bitterness, resentment, anger, impatience? Has every turn through the day brought thoughts and feelings that you battle, fighting to keep those impulses and images from occupying your imagination and time?

1 Peter 4:12 Dear friends, don't be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you.

When a jeweler or a metal-smith starts to make something from gold, they expect to have good quality material to work with. If there are other metals mixed in, it affects the way the gold can be worked. Gold is a very soft, malleable metal which can be shaped easily and hold the fine details, being compliant with the shaping by the artist. If tin, lead, copper, iron are mixed in with the gold, it becomes harder, more resistant to change, unable to respond to the artist's will, causing misshapen work to be produced.

Psalm 12:6 And the words of the Lord are flawless, like silver purified in a crucible, like gold refined seven times.

This is why the refiner goes to such lengths, taking the extra effort to put the gold through the fire, time after time, repeatedly melting the gold, each cycle releasing and bringing up more of the dross and impurities that cannot be shaped as the gold can. Repeatedly, the luster of the gold dims and darkens as the heat of the fire releases the slag and it is forced to the top, floating into view, blocking and hiding the gold beneath, but becoming visible and able to be removed, no longer hidden, unseen, untouchable.

Zechariah 13:9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.

When events around us cause feelings to rise up in our heart and thoughts to circulate in our mind, do not be discouraged, thinking that these temptations which appear are sins you have committed. They are simply reactions, rising from our fallen, sinful nature, being released by the pressures and heat of events, to suggest a path for you to follow, an impulse for you to give in to. Their presence is revealed by the circumstance, and your rejection when they surface is the skimming of the dross, the burning of the impurities, the healing of the gold, though the separation can be agonizing.

Exodus 20:20 And Moses saith unto the people, 'Fear not, for to try you hath God come, and in order that His fear may be before your faces -- that ye sin not.'

Turning to God in the midst of the fiery trial, when you feel the most unclean and impure, is the time that the greatest purifying, the deepest cleansing can take place. God, in His wisdom, places you in circumstances custom designed, personally tailored, to “press your button” and elicit the response. He knows it is there, but we manage to hide it from ourselves until it emerges, pops up, shows off, we feel, for the world to see. It has been in us because we are born in a broken world, but it has no part of the inheritance God has prepared for the new creation He has made us. As long as we do not cling to that carnal response, embrace that earthly feeling, but deny it access to our will and reject it as something foreign to our new nature, God is able to effect the separation that we cannot do on our own.

May you learn the fear of the Lord, for it will keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies, causing you to turn from evil and do good, and seek peace by pursuing it, and thus your love of life and your desire to see many good days will be fulfilled.  Psalm 34

Lord God, we desire to let Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who shows Your nature, be seen in our lives, Father. Thank You for Your purifying work in us. You know what time is available, all the work that is needed, and how much our love for You will enable us to endure. Thank You for tailoring our lessons individually. We trust You, Lord, and submit to Your work, and resist the urge to turn from You at the moment of greatest need, and greatest opportunity, when we see that unlovely part in us that does not honor You but dims Your image, and You are able to offer us Your help in separating it from us, drawing us closer, shining through us brighter. It is our greatest desire, that we would decrease and You would increase!

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