"The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the heart." Proverbs 17:3
I think everything gets tested. Creation is full of examples of how things get tested. Human life is certainly a never-ending progression of trials and tests. It takes intense heat to purify gold and silver.
Similarly, it often takes the heat of trials for Christians to be purified. Through trials, God shows us what is in us and clears out anything that gets in the way of complete trust in Him. Peter puts it this way in 1 Peter 1:7 "These (trials) have come so that your faith -- of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire, may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Christ is revealed." So when tough times come our way, we should realize that God wants to use them to refine our faith and purify our hearts. Not often easy, but always true.
The word 'crucible' itself has come not only to mean the vessel in which the melting and purifying of metals takes place, but also the 'test' itself. I think more than one of us have either recently or are right now, going through a crucible. I know our family has been through a series of seasons of pretty amazing experiences. Frankly, my faith has never been stronger and my heart is very glad even in the midst of some trying times in the Grace Harbor ministry. One of the greatest blessings really, is to have a church family when you go through trials and tests in your personal family life. So when the Lord tests our hearts we may be shocked, not only at what we can endure, but, what lows we are capable of stooping to during times of testing. We sure need purging and purifying in so many areas of our lives. We are 'works in process' and some of us sometimes can be just a real 'piece of work' in general. So, what is my point here? It is simply this. When we start cleaning house, or purifying hearts or getting purged, all kinds of stuff can surface. Our carelessness, impropriety, motives, foolishness, pride, faults, ego, and phoniness can be exposed. Not a pretty sight, usually. Biggest problem can be when conflicting personalities are being simultaneously purified and they can't see through their own stuff to understand somebody else's stuff.
So we should be careful not to be too critical of others when we really just need to deal with ourselves. I know this much, there will be more tests and trials. God help us to let the Lord do the testing and the judging and to build our faith and strengthen our characters together as individuals, families and the family of God.
With His Peace,
Pastor Fred
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