PURIFIED

"For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver." Psalm 66:10

"See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction." Isaiah 48:10


Life would be wonderful if there were no problems, no trials, no heartaches, no grief, no troubles of any sort to cloud our sunny days and cause our hearts to ache. And, for those of us who know Jesus, we WILL have life like that one day....only not here, but in Heaven! Oh how glorious that will be!!!!!!!!!

But, as Jesus told us in John 16:33 "...in this world you WILL have tribulation, BUT...be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world!" So suffering and trouble is a given in this life.

The question is why does a loving God allow it?

God does allow suffering and trials to come into our life, but not without purpose and design. Nothing comes into our lives that has not already passed through His fingers of love. He will not allow us to be tested above what we are able. His purpose is to conform us to the image of His Son...to make us holy as He is holy....to purify us.

In the furnace of affliction, God burns away the impurities of our life. Scripture, as noted above, says that He is the great Silversmith.

In the ancient process of purifying silver, the ore was placed in a furnace and heated very, very hot in order to burn away the dross...the impurities. In this process, it was critical that the silversmith be ever present. He could not leave the furnace where the silver was even for a moment. He had to constantly tend the flames lest the heat get too intense and destroy the silver. His hand was ever upon the ladle which held the ore.

After a sufficient time, he would remove the ore to observe it. Not only was it exposed to the intense heat of the furnace, but it was then exposed to a further cleansing and beating process to test it further. Then the Royal Inspector would come and see if it were purified sufficiently. When the process was deemed complete, the silver was very, very white. One of the final ways then to see that it was truly purified was when the silversmith could see his reflection in it.

"Finally, he [the Royal Inspector] impresses upon it the seal of the King." (Georgius Agricola de Metallica by Herbert Clark Hoover as translated from Latin edition 1556)

Friend, as you and I go through the fires of this life, may we keep our eyes on that day when Jesus will present us to His Father with the seal of His blood upon our lives and hear Him say "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."