God
has a divine purpose for every life that He fashions in our mother's womb. His
Holy Spirit is always ready to reveal to us these perfect plans, and to walk in
us and through us during every moment of them. God is our nurturing Father,
compassionate Savior, and supportive Best Friend throughout our lifetime.
We
all suffer loss, trials and inconveniences during our days on this sin-cursed
earth. God uses these circumstances to refine us like a metal smith refines
silver and gold. The impurities rise to the top, and the smith skims off this
dross until He sees His own reflection in the purified metal that is left.
None
of us enjoy the negative side of life. We prefer to merrily go about our days
with them full of blessings and good experiences. Yet, we draw closer to God
during the bad times than we do during the good. We take Him for granted when
we think that we do not need Him.
When
times get rough, even the most hardened sinner will cry out to God for
deliverance. We often expect immediate relief and resolution of the issues if
we pray, and when we do not receive the answer that we expect, we harbor
resentment and anger toward God.
This
drives a wedge between our heart and His. We grow cold and pull away from
spiritual desire and pursuits all together. We stop attending church services,
praying, reading the Bible, and worshipping our Creator and Lord.
We
do not realize that God is actually refining us like the smith refines his
metal. God is heating up our life to remove our carnality, unholy desires,
idols, and human pursuits. He is attempting to fashion us more like Jesus
until, eventually, people see Christ reflecting from us.
Prayer:
Father
God, we actually want to thank You for loving us enough to skim the impurities
out of our life. Weeping may last for the night, but Your peace and joy flood
our soul with each new morning (Psalm 30:5). Sometimes, You have to spend quite
a bit of time removing certain negative aspects of our soul, but the positive
thoughts, emotions and behavior that result are much more enjoyable to live
with.
We
like who we are becoming through Christ in us, and we feel joy in Your presence
in us. Sometimes, You have to spend quite a bit of time transforming us. We are
so blessed that You, the God of the Universe, love us enough to move Your
presence into our life, and to walk with us and in us through each moment of
our day and night. You bless us with Your unconditional love, give us a reason
to keep on living, and remove our anxiety and worry as You replace it with Your
peace.
Thought
for the Day:
Rather
than despising the purifying work of the fires in our life, we can embrace them
and look forward to the renewal of our humanity into the divine nature of
Christ; God makes us new creatures and uses us for His divine calling that He
predestined for us to perform before we were even born.
-
Psalm 139; Ephesians 2:10; 2 Peter 1:4; 2 Corinthians 5:17
