These are times in life where it feels like God has turned the heat up all the way. Sometimes this comes in the form of a struggling relationship, plummeting health, or being on the verge of a breakdown as someone presses your very last buttons. What’s worse is that it’s happening all at once. Do you know this feeling?
The temperature of God’s hand in your life will sometimes feel like it is burning you to ashes. But what feels like something that is meant to destroy you, and define you, is what God uses to refine you. One of my favorite passages in scripture that speaks of the purpose of the flaming seasons of our lives is 1 Peter 1:7.
“Their purpose is to prove that your faith is genuine. Even gold, which can be destroyed, is tested by fire; and so your faith, which is much more precious than gold, must also be tested, so that it may endure. Then you will receive praise and glory and honor on the Day when Jesus Christ is revealed.”
It’s in our nature to run from fire, but one thing that God’s Word teaches us is that His priorities often look much different than ours. Where our idea of a blessing might look like a relationship with no conflict, complete recovery from our illness, or the disappearance of those who seem to know just how to unravel our patience. He sees it as an opportunity to purify us, to shape us into gold that is so refined that the Maker can see His reflection when He looks at it.
Friend, in the circumstance you find yourself today, know that God is able to bring pure gold out of it. As the fire tests our faith, let us cling to God as He shows us the courageous, resilient, and faithful women that He is shaping us into through the fire.
A Prayer for you:
Dear God, thank You for Your thoughts that are higher than ours. Thank You, Lord, that in the midst of our hardest times, You are able to bring beauty out of the ashes. I pray that You would turn the eyes of my dear friend to You in the midst of the fire that she finds herself in. Would you refine her faith, courage, and holiness and help her see it as Your tool of refining instead of something that defines her, In Jesus’ wonderful name. Amen.
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Be encouraged and be blessed 💞
