By: Orean Brown
The Bible often uses the imagery of gold being refined as a picture of what God does in our lives. Gold, when extracted from the earth, does not look like gold we find in a jewelry store. In fact, it is not always recognizable due to the impurities that mar its appearance. Yet, for the person searching for it, the ugliest lump of gold is of great value, and the potential for beauty is evident. We, as men and women, are similar to those lumps of unrefined gold. The sacrifice of God’s son to reconcile us back to relationship with God shows just how much he values us — even while we are lost and separated from Him. God sees us not full of impurity, but full of potential. He, in the refining imagery, is the refiner and we are the lump of unrefined gold, full of impurity and full of potential beauty. Purifying and refining come in the form of trials and hardship. Neither one feels good at the time. God purifies His individual children and His Church as a whole. We know that trials purify our faith. In the words of Job, “When he has tested me, I will come forth as gold” Job 23:10. The refining process is hot. To refine gold, heat must be applied to force the impurities to the surface, the impurities are called Dross. As the Dross or impurities rise, they are removed, and more heat is applied. This process continues and continues, and continuous heat is applied and re-applied, until the gold is pure. The refiner knows the gold is pure when he looks into the gold and sees his clear reflection. In Malachi 3:2-3 it states, “But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: 3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.” God works a similar process in us. Our lives are a process of God applying heat and exposing our weaknesses, our faults, our struggles, and our impurities. Heat is hot and uncomfortable, but if we submit to the heat, we are day by day transformed into His likeness. The process ends when we meet Jesus face to face, and He looks into our faces and sees His clear reflection. Perhaps that is one of God’s purposes for allowing this global pandemic right now, to purify His body, the Church. Purification sounds harsh, but it is crucial. Without the process of purification, the impurities (worldliness, unfaithfulness, apathy, etc.) remain. One has to wonder, is God using this time to purify His Church and draw us closer to Him? James 4:8-10 says, “Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” To many of us, it feels as though we are being tried beyond our melting points right now. The heat is intense. It feels like it’s going on too long. Are we allowing God to refine and purify us? With the pandemic, our distractions are currently minimized, are we using this time to grow closer to God? Just a few months ago, we were so busy running around, meeting with people, going out to lunch or coffee, setting up play dates, getting our hair cut or nails done, shopping, spending money, entertaining ourselves, planning parties, going to the gym, taking the kids to practice, rehearsal, work, etc. So much of that busyness has been stripped from our daily lives right now. Is God attempting to get our attention? Have we been ignoring Him? Is the dross of our daily lives being skimmed off? Have we been double-minded? We now have more time. Will we use it to get to know God? To come near to Him? Are we allowing the refining process take hold in our lives? Or, will God reject us as unrefined silver or gold and throw us away as worthless metal. Let’s look at what God told Israel through his Prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah 6:28-30 states, “They are all hardened rebels, going about to slander. They are bronze and iron; they all act corruptly. The bellows blow fiercely to burn away the lead with fire, but the refining goes on in vain; the wicked are not purged out. They are called rejected silver because the LORD has rejected them.“ So often we seek to place blame on someone or something for the difficult issues in our lives. But things we attribute to evil may well be heat applied by the refiner of our souls. You see saints, the heat that God applies is full of purpose bringing to the surface impurities and yielding results of holiness and joy in our lives. Illness may be designed to bring fear to the surface so God can build trust. Financial difficulty may raise materialism to the surface. Relational struggles may raise bitterness or unforgiveness to the surface. Disappointment at work may raise pride to the surface. The heat and trials of our lives are not evidence God is cruel or has left you, but ultimately are evidence of how much God values you and His desire for you to be all He designed you to be. He values us as He finds us, but He loves us too much to leave us as He finds us. When life gets hot and difficult, human tendency is to run from the heat. When a molten substance is removed from the heat, it hardens. When we run from the heat, our lives and hearts harden, our impurities set, and we simply stagnate. God’s way of making us holy so we can share in the peaceful fruit of righteousness. God tells us in Hebrews 12:11, “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby”. If most of us were honest, we would trade much in our life for a sense of true peace. Peace does not primarily mean we have peaceful circumstances. Peace is realizing God is refining and removing the dross in our lives so we can become vessels for His glory and reflectors of His image to the world. Saints I don’t know about you but that is a life worth living, no matter your circumstances.