Friday, July 6, 2007

Refiner's Fire


I don't know how the Lord chooses what trials to lead us through, but I do know He does it to mold us into his likeness. It is a painful inferno, our Refiner's fire. Sometimes it seems unbearable. I lay awake and ponder some of the trials God leads us through.

We watch our loved ones get sick and die. Sometimes they are pulled from us unexpectedly in different stages in life...some very young, others old, but we aren't ready for it when it happens. We rarely are.

Some of us suffer financial losses or lose our belongings to flood or fire. We lose precious mementos that cannot be replaced, like wedding photos or beloved home movies, even pets. Many of us have known these losses.

Sometimes the loss is personal. Perhaps it is our own health that suffers, or our own body that is unexpectedly mutilated and we are overwhelmed. How could God allow this to happen? What did I ever do to deserve this?

What indeed?

We live in a sinful world, a fallen world, one separated from God. This world is unholy, dying and diseased, separated from perfect fellowship with God in the garden of Eden. Our reconciliation to God is through the belief in the power of the blood of God's only son Jesus Christ and His forgiveness of our sins. It is only through the gateway of death that we can experience eternal life. We all have that final threshold to cross through and we must each cross it alone believing that Christ saves us, acting as a mediator on our behalf.

While Christ paid the penalty on the cross for our sins, that does not diminish the task that lays before you and I. The task is this...live your life in refinement. And it burns us. Understand that in this world you will face trials of many kinds. But take heart...He has overcome the world. God did not promise us a life of happiness, but he promised to save our eternal souls. We still live in a fallen world.

Christ's suffering on the cross did not erase the present sinfulness of man as a race or cease the inevitable downward spiral of moral decay that grips our planet. God only tells us He loves us and showed us through His death on the cross that He was prepared to suffer the most agonizing death if it meant reconciling us with God and living in obedience to His Father.

His grace is sufficient and God is sovereign. That means that God gives us what we need to survive His refining process and that He knows best on how to shape us into being our best person- in the likeness of His son Jesus. If he didn't care He wouldn't have sent Jesus and He would have left us to die alone. No reconciliation. No heaven, and what's worse, eternal hell.

I cannot pretend to know the pain you are feeling during your refining process. I only know that God personally knows what you are living through, because he has plans for each of our lives. Look at what Job endured, without cursing God! Unfathomable!

When you feel like you are being sifted, it is tempting to want to blame God and curse Him for your suffering. The rain falls on the just and the unjust. The refinement occurs not only in the midst of our suffering but in the way we choose to respond. In the knowledge that God has allowed you to endure hardship in His efforts to refine your spirit and to make you more beautiful in grace and strong in character, can you say that you trust His wisdom? Can you proclaim His sovereignty? Do you still seek His face? Do you recognize God's hand amidst your suffering or are you feeling overwhelmed by loss?

We still have to grieve. We would hardly be human if we didn't feel sadness, even anger at times. But do we dwell in anger leading to bitterness or sadness that leads to despair? Some losses shake us to the core, upending our world and everything we thought we knew to be true and good. Our bearings are gone and we are numb and adrift in a world we thought we knew, but have come to realize its not safe anymore. Anything can happen now. Remember that other shoe? It just dropped, and it flattened me like the house on the Wicked Witch of the East from the movie the Wizard of Oz. My toes are curling just thinking about that. Have you ever had a house dropped on you or someone you love? What did you do? How did you react? What did you say in response?

It is our response that is the true test of our refinement. Have we learned to trust in God's sovereignty? Do we boldly proclaim His ownership of our lives? Do we choose to glorify God in the midst of our suffering by pointing others to Jesus? We find the strength to do this, not in ourselves but in Him. Can you find the strength? Do you see His image reflected in your vessel by the light of His fire?




3 comments:

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  2. I've recently had a conversation about "bad things". As in, "Why does a loving God give people cancer?" It occurred to me that we think in such finite terms. God is so much more concerned about eternity. It's true, our trials refine us and lead us back to Him. But also, our trials are a witness to others, and perhaps through our suffering, someone recognizes the greatness of God.

    AMEN!
    Dorothy

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  3. You hit the nail on the head Dor. Our ways are not his ways are they? It's difficult to think in infinite terms when we live in a finite world. It boggles the mind!

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