Rocks, or Gold?
The purifying process is brutal! Just to get gold ore to a fine golden bling takes ages of excruciation...if you are a lump of gold that is.
And we believers in Christ are. A lump of gold ore mixed with plain ol' rock.
God is in the process of purifying His people. Always has been. Part of what we go through (the lesser part, which is not of our own making) is His work in our lives.
So, each of us lumps need work.
That work means grinding, heating, acid baths, and worse, it repeats. One place in the Bible talks about gold being purified seven times. Ouch!
What are the spiritual equivalents?
Each life is different. His work--our trials-- come in all shapes and sizes, just as the gold purity varies in a lump of ore. But this thrashing brings us closer to becoming the pure gold that will adorn our Lord's kingdom when we walk in on that day.
Are you open to His work in your life? Do you recognise it as you undergo the dark hammering days? Many do not, and doubt, or worse, despair as they listen to devilish nonsense of being hated by God...
Lift your heads!! That means YOU are gold! Only He may see you that way at the moment, but the furnace will do its work, not to mention the master craftsman.
You are gold!
One promise brings us the endurance we need for the pounding process. HE is with us, hand-tailoring us for a future only He can imagine. Would he bother if He didn't love us?
Paul begins in Colossians 1:9
...asking that ye may be filled with the full knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,...
Why do we need that special, full, spiritual-understanding type of knowledge?
...to your walking worthily of the Lord, to all pleasing, in every good work being fruitful, and increasing to the knowledge of God, strengthened in all power according to the might of His glory, to all endurance and long-suffering with joy.
Colossians 1:9-11And there is the need for endurance, strengthened, so we can be, in our metaphor, 'shiny', walking worthy of Him!
So when the heat of trials comes upon you again, take heart! Pain is not optional for us lumps of gold ore, but we know one thing. The Lord is at work. The furnace and acid will purify to an unimaginable glory in HIM!
Colossians notes our worthy response:
Giving thanks to the Father who has made us fit for the participation in the inheritance of the saints in light.
Colossians 1:12We are being made 'fit' for our inheritance. Praise be to God! Make us glow golden in your light!!
About author
A retired teacher of English as a foreign language, she loves classical music, hiking in nature, reading, and writing.
She is married to her marvelous husband, Adam, and loves their two children, with two rambunctious toddler grandchildren completing the joy of family.
God has given her countless opportunities to see His goodness through the years together with the challenges life has brought. Those lessons are the subject of her writing.Show less