Living in the Refiner's Fire

I have a confession to make. I have sung Handel's Messiah a couple of times in the past. I love "The Messiah". It's generally awesome in every way. But there is one piece of music in it that always gives me the giggles a bit. And that piece is called " He is like a Refiner's Fire". It's just a bit pretentious, frankly. Big male solo, usually sing by a bass. Something about the vocal runs in it make me want to laugh out loud. The real life reality of life in the Refiner's Fire is no laughing matter, however.

What is the Refiner's fire? It's the divine process by which God refines out all of our impurities in order to leave nothing behind but pure gold. If you read up on refining gold you will learn that this is the final stage of removing the impurities after the smelting process. It involves reheating the gold in an extremely hot furnace and mixing in borax and soda ash which helps to separate out the the pure gold from other less precious metals. Intense heat from a really hot furnace. Are we having fun yet?

Life with God is so like this. We often make the mistake of believing that if we follow Christ and are "good Christian people" everything should be a-okay. We shouldnt have problems, right? We've been lead astray by lots of false prophets on this one, kids. People hawking the Prosperity Gospel (Pat Robertson)and feel good theology (Joel Osteen)have us all confused. Scripture is resplendent with example after example of ways in which God uses fire to remake, remold, and purify. But that fire is always a refining fire- never a consuming one. There is a difference. How is a fire controlled so that purification occurs and consumption is avoided? It's all in the Hands of the Refiner.

How does the process work? Usually something like this: there is something in our lives that we need to trust God with and we are struggling to maintain control of it ourselves. We won't submit or give it up. Or - there is some trait, or character flaw, or damaged emotion in us that needs to be rooted out. But we can't seem to see it. There are areas of stubbornness in all of us that we cling to. We resist. We cannot submit even though we may very clearly have the sense that we need to change, yield. We refuse. That's when God steps in to give us a hand. He loves us too much to leave us in this broken, sinful state. So he does the merciful thing. He turns up the heat. Huh? Did I just write that? Yes, I did. If that doesn't make any sense to you it's because you have been fed a pack of lies about the way God works. And now do we react? We begin to try to jump out of the fire. Fire is hot and it hurts like hell. We do not want to stay in it. Who would?

I think this is where a little understanding about what is happening goes a long way. There is pointless pain and then there is pain with a purpose. And God only practices the latter, never the former. My teacher always says you must understand the difference between being hurt and being harmed. God allows us to be hurt in this life. But he never allows harm to come to us. He has reassured us that nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate us from his love. Not ever. He also promises to be with us to the end of the age. How can we possibly experience harm given these promises? We can't. But we get plenty of hurt in this life. And the reason for that is so that we can be refined into pure gold.

I'm in a season of being refined by fire. I don't much like it and I don't know how long it's gonna last. Probably as long as I remain stubborn and unyielding, and given what I know about me, you might as well break out the marshmellows. The blaze will be burning for awhile. Pull up a log. Get comfortable. Start singing a couple rounds of Kum by yah. It's gonna be a long night....

I don't much like being refined. That's just the truth. But I am willing to stick it out. Because in the end I'd rather not be stuck with the impurities in my heart and soul. I realize that I can step out of this fire anytime I choose. But I'd rather trust in this:

1 Peter 1:6-7
"Now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Shalom!