Refined

I like to watch the show Gold Rush on the Discovery Network. It is a reality show that chronicles 3 or 4 different gold mining operations. On the episode we watched today they showed one of the crews taking their 34 ounces of gold to be smelted. The 34 ounces of gold was melted in a furnace of 2000 degrees to smelt out the impurities. After this, it was 27 ounces of pure gold, they poured it in a mold and a had bar of gold.

Proverbs 25:4 says "Remove the impurities from silver, and the sterling will be ready for the silversmith."

Zechariah 13:9 "I will bring that group through the fire and make them pure. I will refine them like silver and purify them like gold. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'These are my people,' and they will say, 'The LORD is our God.'"

Earlier this week my morning devotion talked about how we can't control what happens to us, but we are responsible for our response. It can take a while to work through painful experiences in our lives. But God knows how to turn these painful experiences and bring from them blessings. While it's necessary to get through the process of grieving, loss, process the pain, but all the while we can hang on to God and allow him to bring the blessing from it.

We may not always like our circumstances. We may not be able to ever believe it was a good experience. We may never say "it made me a better person". Reality is, some trials leave you shaken to the core. Some leave you broken in a way that only the miraculous healing hand of God can hold you together.

I have some experiences I'm not thankful for. I still feel pain, and I wonder what blessing, what work God was able to do in me, or if it's complete yet. But if through these trials he was able to purify my heart, even a little, then there was a benefit. I won't say I want it to happen, I won't say I'm thankful for it. I'll simply just allow my Savior to use it in my life for his purpose, and trust that he knows best.