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Recently, a friend forwarded an email outlining the process for refining silver. The timing was perfect. I was wrestling with why a benevolent God would allow such a prolonged season of change and hardship. I had been intentionally choosing to trust God repeatedly even though I had no clear vision of His plan, purpose, or even the direction I was supposed to be heading. But I was growing weary and starting to wonder if I was following the right path. Maybe I was missing something and had gotten completely off course. Did God even see me? I was beginning to wonder. The email answered my question.
I know nothing about being a silversmith and neither did the lady in the email. She had been studying Malachi 3:3 – "He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver..." – and decided to visit a silversmith and watch his method for refining silver. The procedure entails the silversmith holding the silver in the center of the flames, the hottest part of the fire, in order to burn away all the impurities. He needs to sit there the entire time, holding the silver in the flames. He also needs to watch it closely because if the silver is left in the flames even a minute too long, it is destroyed. The lady asked the silversmith when he knew the silver was fully refined. The silversmith responded he could tell the silver was fully refined when he could see his own image in it.
Wow! What a powerful allegory. I was struck by the simplicity of the message. The email finished with an encouraging word – if you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember God has His eye on you and will keep watching until He sees His image in you. If we look at the refining process as part of our Christian walk, what does it tell us?
1. God, the silversmith, has us. Whether we are in the fire or out of the fire, God is with us. This is incredibly good news! When we are in the midst of the flames and the heat and things are uncomfortable and we feel alone, God is with us. When we are out of the fire, and things feel comfortable, God is with us. He is the Master Silversmith and we are the silver in His hands.
2. God will allow us to be put to the test and will use the trials we are enduring to do a work in us. He wants us purified and refined for the purpose He has for us, not necessarily the ones we might think up on our own. Sometimes, when it hurts and we start to feel life is unfair, we need to remember the fire has a purpose. We don't always know what it is, just as the silver doesn't know what it will be made into. We can trust our God, though, and believe we will come through the fire better than we entered it.
3. Some of the things burned up in the fire will be close to us. There will be parts of us - or of our lives - we may value, which will be consumed by the fire so we can move into the new place God intends, just like the silver. Not all of the things removed from the silver are bad. In fact, some of the elements are things we value, but they will not allow us into the next place God has for us. The new design we are being fashioned into requires letting go of some parts that may have been intricate pieces of our life prior to now.
4. God has his eye on us constantly in the fire. So when we feel lost or alone, we can remember we have a loving and faithful God who will not allow us to be consumed by the fire or let us stay in the fire beyond what will benefit us.
5. We are being refined to greater reflect His image. The purpose of the fire is to help us greater reflect the image of God and glorify Him. One of the great concerns for me during the season of trial by fire centers on the understanding that many people know my family and I are Christians and our faith walk a high priority. Yet, my life circumstances have not reflected the abundant life that would draw people to God. I have been concerned my testimony won't glorify Him. People will look at us and think if pursuing God meant living through this much crap, they would just as soon not have a relationship with Him. Yet I know He is working something here even when I can't see it or don't understand the method. As long as I choose to trust God is refining us to greater reflect His image, I don't need to worry about what others will see. I need to continue to choose to stay in the fire with God until He has accomplished His purpose. By trusting God in the process, we can greater reflect His image, whatever our ultimate shape may be.
Yet, unlike the silver, we get to choose to stay in the fire or not. And so we need to choose to trust God despite our screaming flesh and stay in the fire so we can become the new and refined silver. Or, we decide the process is too hard and pull ourselves out of the fire. Silver that has not finished being refined will come out misshapen and discolored. It will still carry some of the impurities that get in the way of reflecting the image of God. And the refining process will have to start all over again from the beginning if it is to become all the maker intends. So the question is – Do we trust God enough to stay in the fire?
I can't speak for anyone else but the intensity of the process is not something I would like to repeat so I will continue to wrestle with my own flesh, my own will, to surrender to God's purpose and ask for strength to stay in the fire. I wish you many blessings as you make your choice.
