2017-11-17
Good Morning Dear Ones,
The Refiner’s fire is a series of opportunities for us to make improvements in our relationships with God and with other people, ones that God provides and which please Him. There is nothing easy about it, but God tries to maximize the results. Sometimes they are actions God takes; other times they are consequences to us that God allows. Regardless of God taking an active or a passive part in these opportunities, they are designed for our good. How do I know this? I know this, because God has no evil in Him [1 JN 1: 5]. God’s unconditional love is the greatest blessing in our lives. One might ask, “If God loves me so much, why does He allow the challenges we face?” The bottom line is that we do our greatest amount of growth in spiritual maturity by learning to rely on Him as we work through those challenges. Growth may not be easy, but it is in our best eternal interests.
At this point, we must look at what sanctification is and how it works. Those of us who believe in the Lord Jesus have entered in to a two-way promise with Him called the Covenant of Grace. We can be sure that God will keep up His end of this covenant by making Himself available to us, continuing to teach us through our study of His word and our experience with Him. The problem is that we humans often don’t keep our end of the promise, or we are not consistent in keeping it. God has every right to draw the line on how much of our sinning He will endure [RO 3: 25-26]. If He didn’t do this, no one would take His word seriously. Our part of the promise is to work to expose any sins we commit and to stop the behavior. Sanctification involves us confessing our sins to Him openly and honestly in prayer, knowing that He alone can truly forgive us. Repeatedly committing the same sins brings in question one’s genuineness. God knows when we are genuinely trying to stop a certain sin and when we are not.
Blaming God for our sins isn’t right either. As spiritual adults, we must take responsibility for the sins we commit. There is only one sin that God finds unforgiveable; it is serially expressing evil against the Holy Spirit [LK 12: 10]. God isn’t expecting perfection from us; He wants us to be as good as we can. He knows our potential far better than we often do. The description of this process of bringing ourselves closer to God’s teaching is referred to as the “Refiner’s fire,” an apt metaphor. A refiner heats ore, which is a mixture of useful compounds and ones that aren’t, each of which has its own melting point. The useful ones are separated out, and the rest is discarded. The prophet, Zechariah, tells us, in ZECH 13: 7b-9, that in the Tribulation, two-thirds of the Jews will die, and the other third will be tested to see if their faith is genuine. This will purify their faith. The same metaphor is used in 1 PET 1: 7, which tells us, “The purpose of [our trials now] is to prove that our faith is genuine. Even gold, which can be destroyed is tested by fire, and so your faith, which is much more precious than gold, must also be tested, so that it may endure.” If it passes the test, we “will receive honor, praise, and glory on the Day when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
Before going on, it’s important for me to mention the discovery we experience in our trials, challenges, and troubles. As a young person, adults around me kept saying, “You’ll learn when you grow up.” I didn’t want to hear that; I wanted to learn right then. But God’s wisdom is so much greater than ours, and He knows best when we are ready. Sometimes, humans are ready early; other times they are late in being ready. Each of us is different. My impatience didn’t bring learning certain lessons until God deemed the time was right. He is in control, and we are not. Once I was ready, I was also ready to accept the wisdom of my last sentence. In the meanwhile, we discover some things we can do or shouldn’t do according to God that we didn’t know about before. God’s timing is always perfect. To some degree, our lives must be a series of trials and errors until we finally realize what God wants us to know. PS 107: 43, “Those who are wise will take this to heart; they will see in our history the faithful love of the Lord.” We, who learn to count our blessings, will find better perspective in dealing with our challenges. The Lord is always here to help us, if we will only seek Him out.
PRAYER: O Lord, we send up this prayer to You to acknowledge the understanding You have given us of sanctification and our responsibility to live righteously. You test our faith, but often mankind doesn’t understand the blessings of those tests. Instead, we shift the blame to others or even to You. The best question we should ask ourselves is, “what is God trying to teach me?” Your love for us is unconditional, and this is our greatest blessing. Yet, it only one blessing out of many. There are times when You are working to forward our spiritual maturity. Sometimes, there is some task we can do or attitude we can have that we must discover to better our lives, coming closer to You. We offer thanks and praise to You for always making Yourself available to us. All we need to do is turn to You in prayer with a heart open to the Holy Spirit. Please help us to continue doing this and to come closer and closer to the life You want for us. We offer this prayer in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I have been led to write about some of the passages for more truths the Lord wants us to have. This will be the subject of next week’s message. PS 32: 8, “The Lord says, ‘I will make you wise and show you where to go. I will guide you and watch over you.’” We can believe this comforting Scripture. In my own life, God has selected some of my weaknesses to present me with challenges that lead me to learn how to deal with them in a way which pleases Him. Things like destructive anger (in my past), impatience, lack of humility, the need for better listening skills, and the need for not jumping to conclusions are some of these. There have been times when He allowed me to be embarrassed by the consequences of my own weaknesses. Foolishness, poorly-conceived conclusions, my own refusal to listen well etc. have brought me to this predicament. Long ago when I was a preteen, I was knowingly doing damage to the property of others, and it was the only time I allowed my premeditation to truly bad behavior. The rest of the time, it was foolishness and gullibility. I am far from perfect even now in the winter of my life, but at least, I’m not planning the detriment of others. Still and all, God knows if I am reaching the potential for good that He has created in me. Our God loves us with an unparalleled love, and we are much the better for it. Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2017. All Rights Reserved.
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