These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold… 1 Pet 1:7 (NLT)
When gold is pulled out of the earth, it's rough, dirty and misshapen. Before it can be fashioned into priceless pieces, it must first be refined. By fire. Heat detoxes raw gold making it pure and authentic. Once refined, it can be shaped and moulded into whatever the creator desires.
Unless faith meets resistance, or fire, its potential and power stays unrealised, like a dirty hunk of gold covered in earth. Refining always separates what holds us back from what can drive us forward. In fiery trails we learn to let go of fear, hatred, anxiety… things that corrupt our heart, dull our shine and limit our potential, and we learn to embrace the fire and its burn, knowing that it reveals the gold within.
Gold that has been through many refinements becomes soft and supple. Fiery situations can cause us to harden our hearts to God, others and life. But FAITH keeps us soft through trials and pain. It keeps our hearts responsive to the grace and leading of God. Faith connects us to hope, and through hope, softness and vulnerability to the love of God is continually injected into our lives.
Ez 36:26 says “…I will take out your stoney, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.” Don’t let challenges dump emotional cement into your soul, stiffening your heart and crippling your journey. But let faith massage out your muscles knotted by fear; let it knead out, like rough dough, offences and hatred. And let the heat of refinement bubble up the dirt we accumulate through life so that it can be scraped off and thrown away by the soft hands of grace. The gold that remains is brighter, more confident and full of hope.
When you feel ‘the heat' in life, don’t be downcast or afraid. Allow faith to rise up within you, lifting your head, filling your heart with the confidence that God will lead you on from this moment and the fire will not consume you. You CAN keep on going and you WILL come through the other side of this fire with a stronger back and a softer heart.
Let faith turn your fiery experiences into moments of gold.
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