Welcoming Refinement

Image by jamesnaruke

By Contributing Writer, Jennifer Ross

Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake…

Isaiah 48:10-1 ESV

How can we welcome being put into the Lord’s “furnace of affliction?”

We respond by staying where He has us, by submitting to His will, by patiently enduring.

The Ol’ Oak Tree

We have several grand oak trees on our property.  They are beautiful!  They are very old, and they are colossal!  Their leaves provide ample shade in our yard and are a welcome covering from the blazing summer sun.

But it’s not summer anymore, Toto.

It is autumn, also known by the alias, fall.  Fall is much more fitting.   I’m sure it was the oak tree that inspired this season’s name.

I can’t even begin to imagine how many leaves are on those 3 oak trees in my front yard, but I do know that every year about this time I need to schedule about 2-3 weeks of yard work for the children and I to rake leaves.

While peacefully raking and burning leaves the other day, I was startled by a bursting acorn.  Out from the center of the leaf pile, this one acorn popped out as if it had been a bullet in a gun.

It reminded me of certain pine cones that, in order to release their seeds, need to reach an extremely high temperature, like that of a forest fire.

These thoughts brought to mind the Lord’s Word:

And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested… I will say, ‘They are my people”; and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.”

Zechariah 13:9

Refining

Even now as I sit and write this I am in awe of His words!

He chose people to put into the fire!

It was, it is, right and good that the Lord puts His own in the furnace of affliction.

Minor rabbit trail that just came out of nowhere:  Sometimes when I write these posts, He speaks to me, as I pray and write, and pray and write for His truth to be conveyed, He startles me just like that acorn did.

The truth and beauty of His word shines out and grips my heart, just as it has now. 

So much so, that I need to step back for a moment and ponder His goodness and might!

He refines us.

He tries us.

He tests us.

So He may say, “They are My people.”

So we may say, “The Lord is my God.”

The refining process is for our good.  It is for our sakes, it is for His.  We must not only endure this process.  We must welcome it.

The Refiner’s Fire

Author unknown

He sat by the fire of seven-fold heat,
As He watched by the precious ore.
And closer He bent with a searching gaze
As He heated it more and more.

He knew He had ore that could stand the test
And He wanted the finest gold,
To mold as a crown for the King to wear,
Set with gems of price untold.

So He laid our gold in the burning fire,
Though we fain would have said Him, “Nay.”
And He watched the dross that we had not seen,
As it melted and passed away.

And the gold grew brighter, and yet more bright
And our eyes were so dim with tears,
As we saw the fire, not the Master’s hand,
And questioned with anxious fear.

Yet our gold shone out with a richer glow,
As it mirrored a Form above
That bent o’er the fire, though unseen by us
With a look of infinite love.

Can we think that it pleases His loving heart
To cause a moment of pain?
Ah, no, but He saw through the present cross
The bliss of eternal gain.

So He waited there with a watchful eye,
With a love that is strong and sure,
And His gold did not suffer a bit more heat
Than was needed to make it pure!

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