Dear Praying Friends,
Thank you for praying!
I enjoyed the short history clip as I read from Chuck Swindoll’s writing last week. During the reign of Oliver Cromwell, the British government began to run low on silver for coins. Lord Cromwell sent his men to the local cathedral to see if they could find any precious metal there.
After investigating they reported: "The only silver we can find is in the statues of the saints standing in the corners.” Hearing this, the radical soldier and statesman of England replied: "Good! We'll melt down the saints and put them in circulation!"
Do you feel like you are being melted down? This is God’s doing. This is what the psalmist realized, “For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried” (Psalm 66:10). The process of melting silver in Cromwell’s day was to put the saints in circulation, but the process of melting silver by God is for purification. The process is arduous.
“The Refiner’s Fire” is an old story that tells the reality of our lives well. The author is unknown. Enjoy the outcome:
"The Refiner’s Fire"
As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.
The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: “He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver” (Malachi 3:3). She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.
The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed. The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, “How do you know when the silver is fully refined?”
He smiled at her and answered, “Oh, that’s easy — when I see my image in it.”
Whose image is seen when the refiner looks into your life? Does He see His own reflection or does the dross of sinful impurities still obscure the image? This process, my fellow believer, is lifelong and God uses personal suffering, life circumstances, heartache, family, relationships both good and bad, and a host of other things to produce His image in us.
As we pray today, let God do His work, and remember the whole purpose of our lives as Paul highlights it, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29).
Love in Christ,
Bryan and Rachel
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