The last two weeks of June I just felt down to be honest. I have had a lot on my mind and was feeling like the Lord was showing me even more how sinful I am. I can be selfish, insecure, and fearful. I can start trying to white knuckle change in my life, instead of abiding in Christ and asking Him to change me...and trusting that He is faithful to do so.
I don't know if any of you are like me, but sometimes I'll realize I am being ridiculous, or know that how I am feeling isn't from the Lord, and then I get frustrated with myself for acting/feeling that way when I know better. I know the truth and almost start beating myself up for not walking in the truth.
I've learned though that this is often when God is working on me. He is refining me. He is getting rid of the things in me that do not reflect Him. Instead of getting frustrated with myself I've started to become grateful of the work the Lord is doing in me. He is making me more like Him. He's not done with me yet!
Last week my friend Liz shared this awesome story that totally applies to this refining process...
Some women were studying Malachi 3:3 where it says,
"He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."
They were curious about the text and how it related to the character and nature of God. So one of the women called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention the reason for her visit beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities/dross. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot and reflected on the scripture, "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver." She watched as sweat poured from his brow due to the intensity of the heat from the fire he sat so close to. She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.
The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.
The woman was silent for a moment. The she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?"
He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy- when I can see my reflection in it."
You see as God refines and purifies us it is often times painful, but God doesn't leave us. He sits with us and hold us by our hand and tells us "Do not fear; I will help you." (Isaiah 41:13) What I love is that God can take something with tons of imperfections and impurities, purify it, and make it BEAUTIFUL. When He is finished He will see His reflection in us. Christ in us.
I don't know what you feel like God is trying to work on in you, but I do know that He is always at work for our good and His glory.
Praising God He is not done with me yet. I'm happy to still be in the fire, being shaped and refined. Thanking the Lord for patient and loving people in my life who help encourage me when I'm feeling down. God is good!
For you, God, tested us; you refined us like silver. - Psalm 66:10
Remove the dross from the silver, and a silversmith can produce a vessel -Proverbs 25:4
The Old Refiner
He sat by a fire of seven-fold heat,
As He watched by the precious ore,
And closer He bent with a searching gaze
As He heated it more and more.
He knew He had ore that could stand the test,
And He wanted the finest gold
To mould as a crown for the King to wear,
Set with gems with a price untold.
So He laid our gold in the burning fire,
Tho’ we fain would have said Him ‘Nay,’
And He watched the dross that we had not seen,
And it melted and passed away.
And the gold grew brighter and yet more bright,
But our eyes were so dim with tears,
We saw but the fire—not the Master’s hand,
And questioned with anxious fears.
Yet our gold shone out with a richer glow,
As it mirrored a Form above,
That bent o’er the fire, tho’ unseen by us,
With a look of ineffable love.
Can we think that it pleases His loving heart
To cause us a moment’s pain?
Ah, no! But He saw through the present cross
The bliss of eternal gain.
So He waited there with a watchful eye,
With a love that is strong and sure,
And His gold did not suffer a bit more heat,
Than was needed to make it pure.
(From Streams In The Desert devotional)
Our Father, who seeks to perfect His saints in holiness,
knows the value of the refiner’s fire. It is with the most precious metals that
the assayer takes the most pains, and subjects them to the hot fire, because
such fires melt the metal, and only the molten mass releases its allow or takes
perfectly its new form in the mould. The old refiner never leaves his crucible,
but sits down by it, lest there should be one excessive degree of heat to mar
the metal. But as soon as he skims from the surface the last of the dross, and
see his own face reflected, he puts out the fire.—Arthur T. Pierson