Refiner’s Fire

“You rejoice in this, though now for a short time you have had to struggle in various trials so that the genuineness of your faith—more valuable than gold, which perishes though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7).

Making weaponry and tools by hand is a fine art, and it would have been a much-needed service back in Jesus’ time. A silversmith would heat silver up so that all the imperfections and impurities would bubble to the top, and then he would carefully skim the surface of the silver. This process would refine the silver to remove all imperfections and any excess material, and the silversmith would know he was finished when he could see his face clearly in the silver.

After Elijah had been in the desert for days relying only on the Lord to send ravens to care for him in the wilderness, God tells Elijah to go to a city named Zarephath, which means “refiner’s fire.”

Sometimes, God has to place us in seasons where it feels like our faith is being held to the fire. He has to add some heat to our lives because we have a lot of excess weight on our hearts. We’ve got some impurities and imperfections that need to be brought to the surface. God loves us regardless of our imperfections, but why does He hold us to the fire?

He’s refining you. When He looks at you, He wants to see His face.

But we hate those seasons in the blazing desert, don’t we? We hate having our faith pushed to the limits. We must remember that these times are for a season. They don’t last forever. The real question is not, “will it end?” It’s “will I let Him work in me?”

All seasons come to an end. It’s up to us to decide that we will be pliable in His hands, that we will let Him do the work in us to refine us. We have to be willing to let Him turn up the heat a little if it means that we’ll look more like Him.

It’s not comfortable, and there’s nothing that we despise more than being uncomfortable, but if it were comfortable, we’d have no reason to trust. If it were easy, there’d be no reason to yield.

When we step back and let Him do His work, the result will be far better than us trying to take control.

He does His best work when we are yielded to His will.