A friend told me she dreamed our ministry was on fire. Immediately, I took it as a nightmare, and we prayed against it. Our ministry on fire? All our hard work burning to ash? God forbid! Recently, however, God has reminded me there is another type of fire that’s actually good.
Throughout the Old Testament, we see God’s presence represented through burning fire. In Exodus, Moses encountered God in the burning bush (3:2). In Leviticus, “fire blazed forth from the Lord’s presence” to show God’s acceptance of the sacrifice (9:24 NLT). Even in the New Testament, we see “tongues of fire” above the disciples’ heads, signifying the Holy Spirit’s presence in each of them (Acts 2:3 NIV). “Our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29 NIV), and sometimes that means we will get burned.
There’s a process gold has to go through to be refined. When gold is heated in the fire, its impurities separate from the pure gold, making it easier for the creator to separate the two. God does the same with us. He wants us pure and holy so we can be in His presence. Yet, oftentimes our sin and selfishness get in the way. The Lord tells His people in Isaiah 48:10, “Behold, I have refined you . . . I have tried you in the furnace of affliction” (ESV). Hold up—the furnace of affliction? I don’t think anyone wants to go through affliction. Yet, it is a tool that God uses to refine His people.
When I have an idol in my heart (anything I am putting above my worship to God), I tend to face trials that expose such idols so I can remove them. Most recently, I found myself desiring the praise of other people more than God’s. Within a day of the Holy Spirit convicting my heart about this idol, I started facing so many trials concerning it: Could I be happy without someone acknowledging all my hard work? What about when someone else received the praise from my boss that I thought I deserved? Ouch. It was a painful lesson, but I was able to see my heart’s impurities when God turned up the heat so I could do the work of removing them. The more God consumes us, the more He will refine us.
How has God been refining you lately? What’s an impurity/idol in your heart you have recently acknowledged or acted upon?
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