Proverbs 17:3 (NKJV) The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the hearts.
We don’t like it, but experience validates that it is true: it’s in the furnaces of life that we are tested. We all want to be that finished museum piece, beautiful to behold, gleaming, admired - just needing a little dusting now and then. Not going to happen. We were created “living” beings.
Scripture reminds us that God gives tests – not so that he can know something new or discover anything – testing is for our benefit. What’s really going on inside you – the you nobody sees. Does our repentance hug rejoicing in who God is?
The nation of Israel is our example. God went ahead of them in the Promised Land and when they trusted in Him, and not their own ability, they won battles. There was joy. Dancing. Life was good. They conquered the land.
But after Joshua dies, and that generation passed without doing what God had ordained (teaching the God-principle to their children – that the Joy of the Lord is our strength). That the new generation who did not know God, became the conquered instead of the conquerors. Some of the enemies of truth and righteousness had been left in the land to “test…whether they would obey the Lord’s commands…” They didn’t.
And we (at least, I know I am) are like them. Silver and gold are purified by heat – the dross is burned off and the metal emerges cleaned of the stuff that mars its beauty and usefulness. To mix metaphors here, given the test, the furnace of affliction, I found that “I studied the wrong material and was not prepared,” instead of being the metal and letting the fire clean it – and learn from that – I wanted to manage the test.
God wants us to learn that JOY finds its source in Him. Not ourselves. Not our idols. Not our abilities. And he tests. And tests. And tests, until we learn it’s all about Him and not us.
Are you in the furnace? Are your eyes fixed on the test or the One, who with your repentance, rejoices with you when the fire has done its work?
Copyright © 2010 by P. Griffith Lindell
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
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1 comment:
Wow, so timely for me today. I've been deep into the thoughts about why and where and when. Thanks for bringing me back into the “who it is all about.” It is not like I did not know that but it like He knew I needed someone else to confirm that for me.
Thanks for being a vessel today. I am not in the furnace right now. I've been in it a lot in the last couple of years, but I have been refined. I'm a little brighter and a lot more at peace with who I am in Christ than ever before.
Thanks for reminding me that the fire is for my benefit, not for my punishment. The consequences of sin add punishment because I caused those situations. The “circumstances beyond my control” is the fire that gives me the opportunity to be refined.
Blessings, Griff
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