Refiner's Fire

"He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver;

He will purify the sons of Levi,

And purge them as gold and silver,

That they may offer to the Lord

An offering in righteousness."

Malachi 3:3 (NKJV)

I'm kind of in an interesting season of my walk right now. Not really sure exactly how to explain it to you all, but I guess the best I can say is that it's a season of waiting, learning, breaking, healing, and loving. Waiting on God's timing, learning what being a "woman" of God actually means, breaking for burdens of those around me and of certain things in my own heart, healing of those things being broken in my heart, and loving those that are hard to love. (Which, really seems to be EVERY season in some manner, but it's just so much more apparent right now...if that makes any sense?)

Anyway, all of these things are a part of God's refinement. Refinement. I've heard that word a lot, and people have explained it to me a million times, but only when I sensed God's actual refinement in my life did I begin to grasp it. The reality of it, the pain of it, the joy in it. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to the world, but for the child of God, it's a beautiful shaping of a life to look more like Himself.

To add to the millions of explanations of refinement you've also probably heard, here's just one more:

Amy Carmichael - "One day we took the children to see a goldsmith refine gold after the ancient manner of the East. He was sitting beside his little charcoal fire...In the red glow lay a common curved roof tile; another tile covered it like a lid. This was the crucible. In it was the medicine made of salt, tamarind fruit and burnt brick dust, and imbedded in it was the gold. The medicine does its appointed work on the gold, 'then the fire eats it,' and the goldsmith lifts the gold out with a pair of tongs, lets it cool, rubs it between his fingers, and if not satisfied puts it back again in fresh medicine. This time he blows the fire hotter than it was before, and each time he puts the gold into the crucible, the heat of the fire is increased; 'it could not bear it so hot at first, but it can bear it now; what would have destroyed it then helps it now.' 'How do you know when the gold is purified?' we asked him, and he answered, 'When I can see my face in it [the liquid gold in the crucible] then it is pure.'"

"When I can see my face in it, then it is pure." When God can see His face in us, then we are pure.

Just for fun, here's one more quote for you:

"The Christian life can be explained only in terms of Jesus, and if your life as a Christian can still be explained in terms of you--your personality, your willpower, your gift, your talent, your money, your courage, your scholarship, your dedication, your sacrifice, or your anything--then although you may have the Christian life, you are not yet living it!...True godliness leaves the world convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the only explanation for you, is Jesus Christ." - Major Ian Thomas

When you walk about your daily life, is the first question you ask "What do I want to do today?" Confession--quite often, that's the first question I ask, too. And much too often, it's the only question I ask :/  ...Yet, somehow, in all our failings, God keeps scooping us back up and cradling us in His arms before setting us back on our feet to take the next step. And once we gain our balance again, He sticks us back in the crucible, and heats the fire a little bit hotter. But this time, we're not hurt by this hotter flame. It would have destroyed us before, but because we are a little bit more like Jesus today than we were yesterday, it is simply refining us.

Not sure I still fully understand "refinement." But one thing I know for sure, God certainly is refining me! My prayer is that if you are His child, then you are trusting His refinement. That you are staying in that crucible, though it might hurt. But it will not destroy you, because the Great Refiner is the One holding you :)