Dec. 9: Refine - Todd Vaughn
Just as gold was refined by fire, God is using the trials in our lives to refine us (1 Peter 1:6-9)
Refining a material involves heating it until melting. This causes the impurities and waste materials to evaporate or to float to the top to be skimmed off leaving behind the pure refined metal. Be it gold or silver or something more common like steel. In the case of steel, you can quench it by dipping it in water to quickly cool it. This makes the metal very hard, but brittle. It can then be reheated and slowly cooled in still air to temper the metal. This greatly increases the toughness of the metal while retaining its quenched strength.
When the confirmand group was announced this year, Kori posted a slide of some of the spiritual questions that the confirmands had asked. These were definitely tough questions, but I saw a bit of theme that I have seen quite a bit among new Christians and non-Christians alike and I think that if we’re honest with ourselves as “experienced” Christians, we would find that we live our lives not truly knowing the answer to this as well. The theme I saw was basically, “Why do bad things happen to good people” or “why would a loving God allow this to happen to such a good person”?
We all hear phrases like “God is love” and “We are God’s children” and I think we tend to think that God will take care of us and protect us in all things and that this care will be evident as soon as we face an obstacle or a setback. What I think we miss is the fact that we would not know what “good” is…if we did not have some understanding of what “bad” is. It’s easy to claim to have faith and to love everyone, but as humans with an inherent sinful nature, we need to be forced to exercise our faith in order to truly own it. We must learn how hard it is to love someone who comes across as unlovable. As much as we griped about it when we were in school, we don’t truly learn math, unless we trudge through the homework. Christ suffered greatly when he came to earth to save mankind, why should we be any different?
When we work out at the gym (I can barely remember what this is), we literally tear our muscles up. Lifting weights and working out causes tiny tears in the muscle fibers and then the proteins in our bodies come along and repair them. The key is this…when the muscles are repaired, they become stronger. The same holds true in our Christian journey. When sufferings, challenges, obstacles, betrayals, and setbacks happen, they tear at us and sometimes they shake our foundations as Christians. We look to God in frustration and ask “why do you let this happen to me”?
God is refining you.
He is tearing at your spiritual muscles and now your faith must work, like the proteins in your body, to come in and repair those tears. Rather than asking God “why are you doing this to me” ask “God what are you trying to teach me”? Then listen. Let God heat you until your imperfections are apparent and then give them up to Him to remove them and make you pure. God will not help you in spite of your trials, He will lift you through your trials. He will help you overcome and you will then find rest in God and as you let God slowly cool you, you will be tempered and stronger in your faith.
Don’t complain about your trials and don’t mourn the betrayals, ask God to help you do your spiritual homework so that you can learn how to exercise your faith and love the unlovable. Remember also, that from God’s perspective, we can be very difficult to love. But God loves us and through Christ dying on the cross God has made us holy. That is enough to lift us above any obstacle.
--Todd Vaughn