The Refiner's Fire
Malachi 3:2-4 (NIV) “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver…”
The Lord holds our hearts in His hands. As we willfully surrender to His process in us, our hearts become like malleable clay in the hands of a loving master artist. The Lord uses the tests and trials of life to shape us into unique, powerful expressions of His glory.
Romans 8:28-30 (NIV) “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”
It is important to understand that sin, sickness, and death do not come from the Lord. They are a consequence of humanity’s rejection of loving God. God is an expert at redemption, and He will bend all things, including sin, sickness, and death, towards His redemptive purposes. We have a promise from the Lord that whatever we face in life, He will ultimately use it for His glory. This must be our perspective in times of adversity and trial.
Adversity and trial are not just external situations or circumstances that challenge our trust in Jesus. There is deeper internal work that comes about from His “baptism of fire.” This internal work purifies our heart, the altar of our inner man. The Lord’s name has already been written on our hearts, and His desire is that the center of our very being belong to Him alone.
Proverbs 17:3 (NIV) “The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the heart.”
The refiner’s fire is an inner cleansing, a purging of our deepest heart-beliefs. In this fire, the deepest attitudes and desires of the heart are exposed and put to death. Core beliefs and lies contrary to our nature in Christ shatter and disappear.
The method for refining precious metals is a great analogy for the Lord’s work in our hearts. To refine precious metals, metallurgists will expose them to extreme hearts in a contained, controlled environment. When the metals have liquefied, the impurities will be skimmed off the surface and discarded or put to other use. The essential nature of the metal will not change, but become purified. It is the same for us. We have been given the nature of Christ through the Holy Spirit. It is not our nature that needs to be changed. It is our hearts that need to be purified and refined.
