Refiner’s Fire Sounds Great Until. . .

Zechariah 13:9

This third I will put into the fire;

I will refine them like silver

    and test them like gold.

They will call on my name

    and I will answer them;

I will say, ‘They are my people,’

    and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”

One of the poignant and lasting images from Zechariah is the Refiner’s fire.  The idea is that God will use trials and stress (fire) to purify and refine his people.  It is a powerful image until we realize that we are the ones in the fire!  Then that powerful image becomes potential torture.  Today, I hope we can see that in a slightly different way that makes a huge difference.

Refiner precious metals is not quite as simple as throwing nugget into fire.  The temperature of the fire has to be right.  The container used has to be right. The timing has to be right.  There is great skill needed for refining metal.  It’s not a simple process now.  In Zechariah’s day, it was even more difficult.  The refiner had to know what she was doing. Otherwise, the fire will simply destroy the metal.

I’m sure you can sense where this is going.  The reality is that trials and stress (fire) strike every life – those that follow God and those that don’t.   However, it only those who put themselves in the hands of the Refiner that emerge from that fire refined and purified.  That’s why Zechariah announces that only a fraction of those submitted to the fire emerge refined.  He specifies that is those who call on His Name.  It is they that proclaim, “the Lord is our God.”

When I’m in the fire, I have a hard time remembering that.  When I’m in the fire, I many times have tough thoughts and feelings about the Great Refiner.  When I’m in the fire, I tend to become obsessed about the fire being put out.  One of the hardest lessons that I have had to learn as a follower of Jesus is that there are things about my character that can only be removed by fire.  It’s so hard to really learn this that I have to keep learning it over and over.  But here’s an even harder lesson – if I don’t trust the refiner and submit to the process, the refining doesn’t happen.  It’s nothing more than torment.

Letting God skillfully remove the impurities from our character while we are in the fire is hard.  But it beats the alternative!

Prayer:  The Wesley Covenant Prayer is appropriate for today (and any day for that matter)

“I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,

exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things

to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.”

Prayer Focus:  Pray for those you know who are “in the fire” today.

Song: Brian Doerksen, Refiner’s Fire