The Crucible of Life

I don't know much about precious metals, other than they make men do some pretty crazy things. One thing I do know about precious metals is they are mined. They are dug out of the earth. The interesting thing is the ore that is mined out of the earth is not pure. There's all sorts of impurities mixed in with the precious metal. No matter how clean it may look, there are impurities that need to be removed from the ore before it can be used. The most common way to purify ore into a precious metal is by refining it with fire. The ore is heated to a molten state in a crucible where the impurities float to the top of the liquefied ore. The impurities, called dross, are then skimmed off the top and discarded. After this, the whole process starts over until the desired level of purity is attained. You can never get a bar of precious metal 100% pure. There will always be a little impurity left, no matter how much it is refined.

Malachi, the Old Testament prophet, relays the word of the Lord to us. In chapter 3 he speaks of the refiner's fire. He speaks of the coming Messiah, and His judgment. He speaks specifically of the Levites being refined in the refiner's fire so they can offer a sacrifice in righteousness. I believe this passages of scripture, as all passages of scripture, can be applied to our lives today. Obviously Malachi is not advocating that the Priests be placed in crucibles and placed in an oven heated to thousands of degrees to be purified. He is saying that the Lord will be like a refiner's fire. He will do the purifying. He will skim the dross off that floats to the top and discard it.

We are all in the process of refinement each and every day. This is part of what Paul spoke about when He said we must work out our salvation daily in his letter to the Philippians. Every moment of our life until the return of Jesus we are in one of these three states: being mined, being refined, or cooling off and being readied to be refined some more. How we work out our salvation during this process is to constantly reflect and evaluate our situation. We need to monitor our focus as we go through the refinement of life and let the Lord skim off the impurities.

There are three things you can focus on when in the refiner's fire.

1. The heat
2. The dross (impurities)
3. The refined metal deep within

It is so easy and so tempting to focus on the heat when we are in the refiner's fire. When we are being tested, or being shown the dark spots of our hearts, it is easy to focus on the problem and look for sympathy. When we are focusing on the fire we tend to say things like, That's not fair!, or Look at him/her! They're in the same boat or doing the same thing. We've heard these things from our children, and we're no different to our Heavenly Father. If you focus on the heat, you'll run away and the refinement won't happen. You'll still have to face the fire at some point. You won't move on and become more pure or more valuable until you pass through the fire and allow God to skim off the dross that floats to the top. This can be stressful, but it is worth it. You can really see who someone really is when they are under stress. What impurities float to the top in you when the heat is turned up?

As we allow God to refine us, or to purify us we have a tendency to focus on the dross. We focus on what He is cleaning out of us. We don't want to lose it sometimes. I remember very early in my walk with Christ, I had to give up all of my secular music. I am not saying secular music is bad or evil. At the time, I was so attached to music, that I needed to remove the world's musical influence from my life for a season. It was difficult to get rid of all of those cassettes and CDs, but I did. Today I am thankful that I did. Something spiritual happened in my heart that day. If I had focused on the impurity and hung on to it, I would not have been able to be made more pure and brought closer to the Lord. Even if a bar of gold has a vein of silver in it, it is less pure than a bar of gold without the silver in it. When we focus on the dross, you get too worried about what you are losing and that it might have value down the road or bring you much pleasure now, but it's really just junk that needs to be gotten rid of. Sometimes that dross seems like it can even be valuable to the kingdom, much like the vein of silver in the bar of gold, but only the Lord sees what is valuable in you and what is an impurity.

The proper thing to focus on, and where Jesus is focusing, is on the refined metal deep within. It is that refined metal that has value and purpose. It is that refined metal that knows what it is like to discard dross and enjoy the pure life instead of one with impurities running through it. It is that refined metal that has the advantage of hindsight and sees afterward how much the impurities, no matter how independently valuable, were devaluing it. It is the refined metal, our cleansed hearts, that the Lord can use and desires for us to have. It is with these pure hearts and motives that we can change a world. When you focus on the refined metal deep within, you'll come out more pure, more desirable, and more valuable.

This is the crucible of life.