Each time He puts it through fire, and each time, more dross comes to the top, to be skimmed off. Removed.
Again, the metal is put through the fire, to be refined. To made pure.
Sometimes the dross cannot be skimmed off,
sometimes it must be hammered and rolled. A painful and long process.
But it all serves a purpose, to refine the metal, and make it pure.
"Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer." Proverbs 25:4
The process of refining a metal has a wonderful parallel to the Christian life.
We come before the Lord with hearts of stone. Hearts that are filthy and in dire need of cleansing.
As it says in Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure, Who can understand it?".
That verse in Proverbs 25 is so wonderful... take away the dross... and there shall come forth a vessel!
I love to compare myself as a vessel. Yes, I'm a leaking, and broken vessel, nothing special. But I have the most skilled craftsman, and in my weakness, He is glorified!
I have been recently reading through the book of Jeremiah, and in chapter 6 I read a verse that really hit me.
"They are all hardened rebels, going about to slander. They are bronze and iron; they all act corruptly. The bellows blow fiercely to burn away the lead with fire, but the refining goes on in vain..." Jeremiah 6:28-29
The Lord refines our hearts because He loves us. We are commanded to be holy (1 Peter 1:16), which is something impossible for us to attain on our own. How could such a broken and foolish person as myself be holy? It's certainly something I could never accomplish on my own. Only Christ can do that, and His life through me.
"but the refining goes on in vain.."
My heart's cry to the Lord the past few days has been just that.. that the refining of my heart would not be in vain, but would fulfill the Lord's purpose! That when the dross is removed from my heart, no matter how painful it is, that I shall come out of it as an even more refined vessel, that the Lord can use for His purpose. And that I will continue to allow Him to refine and build this vessel. A vessel for His service. How do we make this refining worth it? Allow Him to change you! Be willing to obey! Has He asked you to do something that you're refusing? As He revealed to you things you are unwilling to change? He wants to change you, so let Him do it! Don't fight it.
Today, right now, consider YOUR heart. Where is your heart before the Lord? How is your heart? Be willing to check it honestly before Him. I desperately want this refining to be of value, and not something that the Lord looks at as worthless. So as I check my heart, I still see a lot of garbage, and a lot of pride, and a lot of hurt and a lot of stubbornness. God is continuing to scrape and break my heart, each and everyday. It is painful, and I wish I didn't have to go through this process, but it only serves to make me more and more like Christ, the one I love and follow.
"Create in me a pure heart, O God." Psalms 51:10
