For our God is a consuming fire.
~ Hebrews 12:29
Fire - it consumes and refines. Knowing and obeying God is not always easy,
and in His desire for us to be conformed to the image of His Son, He sometimes
places us in the furnace to be refined.
I don't know how much you all know about the refining process for gold. I've
learned a little bit in my visits to some of the historic parks here in the
Gold Rush country in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. When gold is being
mined, it's usually found in ore. One way to remove the gold from the ore is
smelting, which is placing the rocks into a blast furnace and burning them at
an extremely high temperature. The impurities are removed, and soon all you
have left is the gold (I'm probably a bit off in this explanation, so please
forgive me if that's the case).
This is somewhat similar to how God works in our lives. He is a holy,
consuming fire, and sometimes that means we are placed into the furnace to be
refined. It's a painful process, but the end is worth the pain. 1 Peter 1:7
says 'that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold
that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and
glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.'
Our faith does get tested, but when we hang on to God, that very same faith
glorifies His name. The best example I can think of is found in Daniel, when
Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego were thrown into the furnace because they
refused to worship the image of Nebuchadnezzar. What a test of their faith
that was! Out of the whole of Babylon, they were the only three to refuse to
worship this idol, and they knew that meant they would be thrown into the
furnace. Yet, when questioned by Nebuchadnezzar, their reply was 'Our God
whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He
will deliver us from your hand, O king; but if not, let it be known to you, O
king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which
you have set up.' (Daniel 3:17-18).
They trusted in the deliverance of God. They also knew that even if He didn't
deliver them from the furnace, that He was still trustworthy. And when we
read a bit further in that chapter, this is what we see: Then King
Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his
counselors, "Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?"
They answered and said the the king, "True, O king." "Look!" he answered, "I
see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt,
and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God." (Daniel 3:24-25)
Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego were thrown into the fire. God didn't deliver
them from being thrown into the furnace, but He walked with them in the fire
and kept them safe. They came out of the fire, untouched by the flames, and
they didn't even smell of the smoke! The only thing different was that the
bonds that tied them when they were thrown into the fire were burned away.
God wants to do this for you today....He may not deliver you from the trials
you face, but He has promised to be there with you through them, and to keep
you safe in the midst of them. Isaiah 43:2 says, 'When you walk through the
fire, you shall not be burned.'
Trust God right now - hang on to Him in the midst of your troubles, and He
will be there with you. And once you reach the other side, You'll see His
faithfulness more clearly. Yes, He is a refining fire, but He will be with
you through it all.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.
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