While And He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will sanitize the children of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so they may present to the LORD contributions in honorableness.
Malachi 3:3
I recollect when Debbie and I were a youthful hitched couple and purchased our first lawn flame broil. It was energizing. I planned to begin "barbecuing out" like different folks did. I would have been "Culinary expert Jeff," griller specialist… or so I imagined.
One of my first encounters as "Cook Jeff" was flame broiling chicken for certain companions. It was their first time over to our home for supper. With essentially no cooking abilities amazingly, I erroneously took the chicken off the fire too early. Some may like uncommon steak, yet no one prefers uncommon chicken … and Salmonella. At the table, my visitors obligingly inquired as to whether I could return their chicken on the flame broil to cook it somewhat more. UGH! I saw, however it was as yet an "UGH" experience. (I chose to keep my normal everyday employment and let Emeril get all the cooking wonder.)
NEVER TOO SOON AND NEVER TOO LATE
Did you realize the Lord puts His youngsters on the barbecue, in a manner of speaking? He drives us into searing preliminaries. He places us in the heater of hardship, into the purifying pot of refinement. It is truly hot and upsetting in the fire. Nobody likes searing preliminaries … except for everybody needs them so as to be made more like Jesus.
Malachi 3:3 advises us that the Lord "sits as a smelter and purifier of silver." In His endless love, God looks out for us as we are experiencing the flares of the refining cycle. He is utilizing our blazing preliminaries to cleanse the pollutions and eliminate the dross of transgression and self-centeredness from our lives.
Maybe you feel as though God has overlooked you in the fire. Maybe you feel as though He has gotten occupied with different things and has left you to mull. Maybe you feel as though the chicken was done quite a while past. Tune in, my companion … God watches you in the refining pot. He never dozes or sleeps since He never takes His eyes off His kids.
He is an ace purifier, an ace gourmet specialist. He comprehends what He is doing in your life and mine. He has a reason in each preliminary. He never takes us out too soon, as I did with those chicken bosoms, and He never leaves us in excessively long. Despite what we face, we can have confidence that our caring purifier is watching and will be dedicated to do what is best for us.
SEE HIS REFLECTION
How does the purifier know when the cycle is finished? It is finished when all the dross is taken out, and the purifier can see His own appearance in the valuable metal.
God is chipping away at you and me so that individuals can see Jesus in us. John the Baptist put it thusly, "He should increment, yet I should diminish" (John 3:30). Trust God in the fire. He is working each preliminary together for our great and His brilliance.