HAVE YOU BEEN REFINED?
I have been letting the words of a song the Gaither Vocal Band has done recently run through my mind. It talks about how we can recognize the good times simply because we have endured the bad, “Without fire there’s no refining“. Then I remember how many times we have grumbled and complained because God hasn’t taken the bad things away from us. Failing to realize that in HIS plan, He is simply molding and purifying us to be the perfect being He needs us to be and fitting us for heaven. Charles wrote a poem called “Refined by Fire”. Just as the precious metals that we crave so must be taken through the fire to bring out the impurities, so must we be….and I am reminded as well of a song from my youth, “when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as gold.” Even as the old blacksmith had to heat the iron and things he used to fashion needed tools for the people of old, it had to be placed in the fire until it was “white-hot” then it could be shaped and molded and formed to become what was needed. When you feel as though you have gone into the fire and it seems you have been there much longer than you think is necessary; you wonder why God hasn’t taken you out. Maybe you feel He’s not “heard” your prayer. Maybe He hasn’t “answered” your prayer. REJOICE that He is purifying you for His express purpose. This should tell you that He has something very special in mind that He needs you to do. Rejoice to know that He is going to use you for His perfect plan.
Reflecting back to some people we have heard testimony of, a man who was diagnosed with a terminal illness…he was at peace with it, but the family wasn’t. He knew where this was going to lead him and the end result would be heaven; the couple whose home burned and they thanked God for what they saw as a blessing; the lady who after suffering greatly with bone cancer, thanked God for her cancer and the things she learned through her ordeal: “I believe cancer is the best thing that happened to me. I would get rid of it in a minute if I could, but I wouldn’t give up the changes it has made in my life. God I love you for making me suffer like this.” This woman had a dying wish that everyone would know what she knew; the God she knew and the love He had for her. After what Jesus had gone through for them, they really couldn’t complain. I feel more than ever that the problem with our “trials” isn’t the trial itself, but our attitude about it. As we stated at a concert recently, our trials, no matter how severe, can be a true testament to the confidence we have in the Holy Father, God. If our friends and families and even strangers we come into contact with can see us rejoicing and praising God during our struggle, they must SURELY feel there is truly something to this “faith” we proclaim to have in an almighty God. Thus God must be real, and totally trustworthy. Our afflictions, whether physical; financial; emotional; mental can be our greatest asset if we fully trust and KNOW that it is part of God’s plan.
I don’t mean to imply that you should be complacent in your trials; your infirmities; your “refinement”. Simply that when you pray and ask the Father to intercede and it doesn’t happen, at least not as you would like it to, trust that He DID in fact hear AND answer your prayer. Yet He chose to use this to refine you, so that you can come forth as a worthy subject for the kingdom of heaven. If He seems to have said “no”, then simply ask for the strength and the patience to stay in the refiner’s fire as long as He deems necessary. Jesus, Himself, is the prime example of this….He prayed that His cup be taken from Him….yet at the same time He yielded to the Father’s plan for redemption……the big difference here is that Jesus was already pure, yet He chose to stay in the refiner’s fire for you and for me. He is our example in all things. We can choose to follow that example, or deal with the alternative.
Isaiah 48:10 Behold I have refined them, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.
Psalm 66:12 …we went through the fire and through water: but Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.
Daniel 12: 10 Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried;…none of the wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand.
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.
Malachi 3: 2, 3 He is like a refiner’s fire….He shall sit as a refiner and purified or silver: and He shall purify…and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.
Titus 2:14 Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people,zealous of good works.
© 2007 Maxine Branthoover
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