A Refiner's Fire

A Refiner’s Fire1 Peter 1:6-7 "I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.”In Tuesday’s episode, we talked about 1 Peter 1:6-7. This verse ends with, “The Day is coming when you’ll have it all—life healed and whole.” This is where today’s verses pick up. I had to go back and look because today’s verse begins with, “I know how great that makes you feel,” and I couldn’t remember what was making us feel so great. Now that I look back, I agree that thinking about a day when we have it all—life healed and whole does make us feel pretty great. Today’s verse talks about why we have to go through some of the things we need to go through. Or, maybe not why we have to go through them, but the result of going through them.The verse says, “Pure gold put into the fire comes out proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine.” I remember I was at a prayer group meeting once, and the leader was talking about the process of refining silver. I am not sure if the process is the same for refining gold or not. I think this story will give you a good idea of why we must all go through a refining process. Here is the story:The Refiner’s FireAs 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 so as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: ‘He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.’ (Malachi 3:3) 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 were left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed. The woman was silent for a moment. Then 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 see my image in it.’ I love this story because, to me, it explains why we have to go through some of the things we have to go through. My favorite part is the very last part. I love that the silversmith said it is done when he can see his image in it. Isn’t that beautiful? Isn’t that the same with us? God is refining us and helping us to become not just better versions of ourselves but actually to become more and more like Jesus. God can tell when He is done refining us because he can see his reflection in us. I think that is a beautiful thought.The verse today says that when gold is put in the fire, only the true gold remains. It is also saying that when genuine faith is put through suffering, it comes out proved genuine. Can you see how this would be true? Can you think of a time when your faith was tested? A time when you were sure you believed God worked all things for good. A time when you felt you really trusted in the Lord. Then it seemed like your whole world came crashing down. Maybe you lost your job? Maybe you lost your house? Maybe you lost a spouse or a child? Maybe you lost your parent?Whatever it is that happened, it shook your world and tested your faith. You struggled to understand how the God you loved so much could allow this terrible thing to happen to you and your family. You struggle to trust that He will be there with you through it all. This is hard for all of us. It is easy to have faith when all is going well. It is easy for someone who is doing great in life to tell you to just trust in the Lord, to turn to Him, and He will help you. Those are easy words to say to others when all is going well. However, it is very different when you are the one going through it.This is what this verse is trying to tell us. When we go through a difficult struggle and are able to keep our faith through it. When we are able to turn to the Lord in our confusion and our anger and talk with Him, that is when our faith is proved. That is how we can prove our faith is genuine. This isn’t just proving it to the Lord either; it is proving it to us as well. We may wonder if our faith is true and genuine, and when we hit a hard time, we get to see if it is or not.The last line of this verse says, “When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.” This can be a very important thing for us to remember because it is so contrary to how the world thinks. The world only seems to care about how much stuff you have. Do you have the nicest house, car, job, etc? However, this verse is telling us that it is our faith, not our gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory. We tend to think we will know we have been successful in this life if we have given our family everything they wanted. We think our status in life will show how successful we have been; when we think like this, we are missing the point. We are missing what makes us great. It is not our stuff. It is our God and our faith in our God.There is one part that I didn’t really notice until I wrote that last line. It says God will have our faith on display as evidence of his victory. It will not be our victory. It will be his. This is something I think I will take to prayer and ask the Lord to go deeper with me about this. I didn’t understand why it would be his victory. Meaning, if we messed up and didn’t have faith, would it be considered His failure? I know with kids, they tell us not to internalize our kid's wins and losses. It is not our fault if they lose, and it is not because of us if they win. What came to me when I just prayed about his was that our faith is evidence of God’s victory over evil. When we were in those difficult times, evil attacked us. We could have given in, but we didn’t because we have God on our side. God will always triumph over evil. When Jesus died on the cross for us, death and evil were defeated once and for all. When we turn to the Lord, believe in the Lord, and trust the Lord, He will deliver us from our hard times. It just might now be in the timing that we would like.Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we love you, and we want to trust you. We want our faith to be strengthened, yet we don’t want to have to go through the trials. Lord, give us the strength and the fortitude to believe even when we are tested. Help us go through the testing and come out stronger on the other side. Help us care more about our faith than we do about our status or our material things. We love you so much, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I hope you enjoyed the preview of the mentoring session on yesterday’s episode. If you have not listened, I encourage you to take a bit of time and listen to yesterday’s episode. It will give you a feel for what my new mentoring program will be like. If you would like more information about the mentoring program, you can go to walkboldlywithjesus.com and go to the mentoring section, or you can CLICK HERE. I look forward to meeting you here on Monday. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!The Word of the Lord for today is: "I am the Lord your God. I am the only God. I am the all-powerful God. Remove all the idols of this world. Do not be ensnared by them, for I am your God. Why do you seek for other Gods’ when I am the most powerful, the most loving, the kindest God? You know what the idols are in your lives. Get rid of them and get closer to me, for I love you so much, my children. Never doubt that I love you." www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace