Refiner's Fire
What a blessed Sunday! Let me first begin with a GOD stop. This weekend, my parents church hosted a Youth Xplosion. There were approximately 150 in attendance each evening and many decisions for Jesus Christ were made. Lives were forever changes and there was a freedom that came from complete obedience to Christ. It was so wonderful to see the Lord working in and through the lives of young people. I love their passion to serve Jesus!! I don't want to ever lose that passion! The altars were full this morning as the Holy Spirit moved throughout this place. Thank you LORD! You will never guess the closing scripture the evangelist used. Isaiah 43:18-19, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland."
What blessed confirmation as we enter into our last week of this 40 day journey together. We started out believing God for a new thing this new year. Believing God for a new start, new blessings and new opportunities to serve Him in 2010. We continue to ask Him to search our hearts and draw us close as we continue this amazing journey together.
As my husband and I have entered into this new phase in our lives, the LORD has been doing a new work in our hearts. Sometimes we when go through the "fires" of life, we tend to feel as though the heat is more than we can take. It becomes so intense at times, that we feel as though we have been burned. It causes us to be fearful to step out in faith again. It causes a hard hit to our self esteem and the enemy tries to bring us down and defeat us.
Sometimes, we are going through a refining process. God is preparing us for something greater. A new thing for His glory! He is removing the impurities from our lives and refining us. He is drawing us in a deeper relationship with Him. He longs for us to live by faith and to give Him our ALL. He wants us to trust Him completely and live by His Holy Word.
When I am feeling down or like I have had a tough season in life, I often turn to read the life of Job. For many years of my spiritual walk, I avoided this passage of scripture because it scared me. I thought. . . here is a man of God who loved God with all his heart, yet God allowed him to go through a tremendous time of testing. How many times do we allow fear to keep us from a blessing? As I studied this book, I learned that God was faithful. Job had lost everything. He lost his family, his crops, his livestock, yet he praised God. Job 1:20b says, "Then he fell to the ground in worship. . "
Job was even rejected by his friends and family that remained. However, we see in Job 19:25 that he says, "I know that my Redeemer lives and that in the end He will stand upon the earth." Oh Father, strengthen my faith! Help others to see that even in the desert times, you remain faithful! Beloved, our Redeemer lives! PRAISE GOD!!
I love the book Fresh Faith by Jim Cymbala. In one part of his book, he talks about the purging process. Silver and gold mining is a very extensive process. When ore is mined and brought to the surface, there is still much work to be done. Did you know that silver does not melt until it reaches 960.5 degrees Celsius? It has to become that hot to begin to yield up its impurities. When God begins the process of purging us, His goal is to purify our hearts and lives for His glory. Proverbs 25:4-5 says, "Remove the dross from the silver and out comes material for the silversmith; remove the wicked from the king's presence, and his throne will be established through righteousnes."
Sweet ones, allow the Holy Spirit to remove the impurities and melt away your dross. Change is never easy, but it is necessary to live the life that God has called us to live. We must embrace change in order to enjoy the fullness of the life God has for us. "I will turn my hand against you; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities." (Isaiah 1:25) We must let nothing quench our passion for serving God!
We must decide that our relationship with Jesus Christ is more important than anything else this world has to offer. I love what Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego said to King Nebuchadnezzar when he wanted them to worship the image of gold that he had set up. "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and He will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if He does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." (Daniel 3:17-18)
Even when we go through the difficult seasons of life, God will be with us if we put our complete trust in Him. Be passionate as you serve Him. Let nothing or no one keep you from praising God and proclaiming the truth of His Word! He will rescue you! However, let us have the same spirit as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. . . "but even if He does not. . " WE WILL SERVE THE LORD!!
We see that when these men were thrown into the fire, there was a fourth man in the fire! (Daniel 3:25). Beloved, we serve a God who is with us! He protects us and He provides for us! He also purges and refines us, yet praise be to God, He also goes through the fire with us! Isaiah 43:2 says, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you wil not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze."
My heart's cry is "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." (Psalm 51:10) We must allow God to refine us and we must remain steadfast in Him. Don't lose heart, God is working on a greater plan! Stay passionate and remain steadfast, my friends! Hebrews 12:29 says that "Our God is a consuming fire!" Others should be able to see that we are on fire for Jesus Christ! Even when we are going through the tough seasons of life, let us not forsake falling to the ground and worshiping our LORD! We can testify, as Job did, that "He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold. My feet have closely followed His steps; I have kept to His way without turning aside." (Job 23:10-11).
I praise God for my Journey Girls and I am so very proud of you. Continue to keep a holy passion for serving Jesus! Allow Him to remove any impurities and melt the dross from your hearts and lives. Ask Him to cleanse and purify you and seek Him with your whole heart. ". . Then the Almighy will be your gold, the choicest silver for you." (Job 22:23a)
Continuing to Praise Him,
Elisabeth
What blessed confirmation as we enter into our last week of this 40 day journey together. We started out believing God for a new thing this new year. Believing God for a new start, new blessings and new opportunities to serve Him in 2010. We continue to ask Him to search our hearts and draw us close as we continue this amazing journey together.
As my husband and I have entered into this new phase in our lives, the LORD has been doing a new work in our hearts. Sometimes we when go through the "fires" of life, we tend to feel as though the heat is more than we can take. It becomes so intense at times, that we feel as though we have been burned. It causes us to be fearful to step out in faith again. It causes a hard hit to our self esteem and the enemy tries to bring us down and defeat us.
Sometimes, we are going through a refining process. God is preparing us for something greater. A new thing for His glory! He is removing the impurities from our lives and refining us. He is drawing us in a deeper relationship with Him. He longs for us to live by faith and to give Him our ALL. He wants us to trust Him completely and live by His Holy Word.
When I am feeling down or like I have had a tough season in life, I often turn to read the life of Job. For many years of my spiritual walk, I avoided this passage of scripture because it scared me. I thought. . . here is a man of God who loved God with all his heart, yet God allowed him to go through a tremendous time of testing. How many times do we allow fear to keep us from a blessing? As I studied this book, I learned that God was faithful. Job had lost everything. He lost his family, his crops, his livestock, yet he praised God. Job 1:20b says, "Then he fell to the ground in worship. . "
Job was even rejected by his friends and family that remained. However, we see in Job 19:25 that he says, "I know that my Redeemer lives and that in the end He will stand upon the earth." Oh Father, strengthen my faith! Help others to see that even in the desert times, you remain faithful! Beloved, our Redeemer lives! PRAISE GOD!!
I love the book Fresh Faith by Jim Cymbala. In one part of his book, he talks about the purging process. Silver and gold mining is a very extensive process. When ore is mined and brought to the surface, there is still much work to be done. Did you know that silver does not melt until it reaches 960.5 degrees Celsius? It has to become that hot to begin to yield up its impurities. When God begins the process of purging us, His goal is to purify our hearts and lives for His glory. Proverbs 25:4-5 says, "Remove the dross from the silver and out comes material for the silversmith; remove the wicked from the king's presence, and his throne will be established through righteousnes."
Sweet ones, allow the Holy Spirit to remove the impurities and melt away your dross. Change is never easy, but it is necessary to live the life that God has called us to live. We must embrace change in order to enjoy the fullness of the life God has for us. "I will turn my hand against you; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities." (Isaiah 1:25) We must let nothing quench our passion for serving God!
We must decide that our relationship with Jesus Christ is more important than anything else this world has to offer. I love what Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego said to King Nebuchadnezzar when he wanted them to worship the image of gold that he had set up. "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and He will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if He does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." (Daniel 3:17-18)
Even when we go through the difficult seasons of life, God will be with us if we put our complete trust in Him. Be passionate as you serve Him. Let nothing or no one keep you from praising God and proclaiming the truth of His Word! He will rescue you! However, let us have the same spirit as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. . . "but even if He does not. . " WE WILL SERVE THE LORD!!
We see that when these men were thrown into the fire, there was a fourth man in the fire! (Daniel 3:25). Beloved, we serve a God who is with us! He protects us and He provides for us! He also purges and refines us, yet praise be to God, He also goes through the fire with us! Isaiah 43:2 says, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you wil not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze."
My heart's cry is "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." (Psalm 51:10) We must allow God to refine us and we must remain steadfast in Him. Don't lose heart, God is working on a greater plan! Stay passionate and remain steadfast, my friends! Hebrews 12:29 says that "Our God is a consuming fire!" Others should be able to see that we are on fire for Jesus Christ! Even when we are going through the tough seasons of life, let us not forsake falling to the ground and worshiping our LORD! We can testify, as Job did, that "He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold. My feet have closely followed His steps; I have kept to His way without turning aside." (Job 23:10-11).
I praise God for my Journey Girls and I am so very proud of you. Continue to keep a holy passion for serving Jesus! Allow Him to remove any impurities and melt the dross from your hearts and lives. Ask Him to cleanse and purify you and seek Him with your whole heart. ". . Then the Almighy will be your gold, the choicest silver for you." (Job 22:23a)
Continuing to Praise Him,
Elisabeth
2 Response to Refiner's Fire
This past week I have had a couple of God Stops along the way. My first God stop was that I have gotten A's on all my assignments so far with my master's class! The next God Stop is that God has given Peter an opportunity to do a few extra computer jobs for a company that has helped pay for half of my class!! As busy as everything has been God has helped me accomplish everything that needes to be done. I like how you chose to write about God refining our lives. Today's message at church was about anger and that is one stronghold that has haunted me for a long time. One point that he made that I often like to deny is that we can control our anger. He even proved his point by reminding us of something we are all guilty of doing. In the middle of our anger and range the phone will ring and we will pick it up and talk as if we were the most joyful person ever. It hit me hard and made me realize that I want to make a true effort to control my anger. He reminded me that most anger stems from not getting something we want or think we deserve. Talk about feeling like you're being refined. It's not easy being refined but very important in order to grow in Christ! Thank you for the encouraging words!!
Christy,
I am so proud of you and how God is working through your life! I am so proud of you on your class as well! You are doing GREAT!! You are right, being refined is not easy! HA! I am praying for you each day and love and appreciate you so very much! Thank you for your friendship!
Love you,
Elisabeth
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