“But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers soap. He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the LORD offerings in righteousness.” Malachi 3:2-3

Watching the refining process of silver or gold has to be amazing and interesting. It is something I must do sometime. As I did some research, I gathered that it is an intense process for the material being refined. The material is in the center of the fire, which is the hottest part of the fire; the smelter cannot take his eye off the fire at all, for if the time necessary for refining were exceeded by the slightest degree the material would be damaged. During the time in the fire, all of the impurities in the material vanish. When the refiner can see his reflection in the material, he knows that it is pure, and ready.

Can you imagine being in such intense heat? It really does not sound good, but our trials and tribulations compared to that of a refiner’s fire in the word of God. For me, this is comforting and encouraging as a believer in Christ. I want others to see Jesus’ reflection in me, so He must place me in the refinery daily or as often as it takes to remove all that is not of Him. Things like a bad attitude, selfishness, laziness, complaining, grumbling, etc…. we all have them, and they are sin. However, because God loves us, and desires us to be like Jesus, we will go through trials and testing of our faith.

It is far better to be in the refiner’s fire, and under God’s watchful eye, than it is to be pulled in by worldly lust and tangible things from the enemy that look so inviting to us. The enemy wants to reshape us and make us like him. We as God’s children need to be aware of the enemy and his tricks. The refining process may be quite uncomfortable for the believer, but it produces purity. Sometimes we do not understand what God is doing in our life, but that is ok. He is the one that knows ALL things, and we do not.

We must be on guard and dressed for war everyday because the enemy wants us to look like him, and not like the Lord Jesus. The Lord desires us to be different and set apart from the world. We are to be a light in a dark world, and the salt of the earth. While we are in the flesh it is hard to please God though, or to be like Him, but it is possible with the Holy Spirit, which is our helper. Do you ever wonder why you have so many trials and tribulations? For me, I guess there is still work that needs to be done in my spirit, so that I will be able to stand when Jesus comes back and to know that I am as He is. All his children want that I am sure.

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God bless