Refining gold

My world has just flipped, and everything around me is now falling straight for my head. Reeling from such a quick downward spiral, I find myself with nothing to stand on, and I begin to panic. I am a frantic child crying out for my heavenly Father to make it right again. When it doesn't happen, I question the strength of my faith. My faith. Up until this time, my faith was comfortable. It was something I relied on in a causal manner. Now it is all I have left to stand on. It becomes my sole source of survival. 

The very core of my being has been rocked, and for what? Why did this happen to me? I want to file a complaint, stating how unjust this is, but a verse pops into my head, and reminds me why we go through things sometimes. 

James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

 Sometimes our faith gets tested, and it is almost always hard. If it were easy, it wouldn't be a test. I need to remind myself that. Like a teacher tests his/her students to see if they know what they have been taught, same goes for God. One way to find out what we are lacking? Go through a rough time in our spiritual walk, and things are brought to our attention. In these trails we face, we have the opportunity to let God refine us, like gold is refined through fire. 

1 Peter 1:6-7 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These 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 Jesus Christ is revealed.

Did you know that when refining gold, it's heated to extreme temperatures (excess of 1,000 degrees Celsius, or 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit) to pull out all the impurities or 'dross'? When heated to this temperature, the impurities rise to the surface of the melted gold and are extracted to make the gold pure. Then (this is what spoke to my spirit this morning) the refiners, when making the gold into something of value, ADD other metals to it, to strengthen it, forming an alloy. God works in the same way! When we go under the fire, and things in our life take a nose dive, God refines our faith! Things we have accumulated in our life, the fruits of the flesh (anger, hatred, jealousy, greed, etc) rise to the top, and can be removed, only to be replaced with the things of the Spirit (love, goodness, joy, peace, patience, kindness, etc). The fruits of the Spirit can replace our fruits of the flesh! 

This, in text, sounds wonderful! In reality though, it is a true test of faith and takes a lot of perseverance. Isn't that what James was telling us to do? To let perseverance do it's work in us so we lack nothing? What exactly is perseverance? The dictionary describes it as, "steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement." So in short, never quit, despite it all! Even though it is hard to go through the fire, it pays off so much in the end. God can take you places you never dreamed possible, leading you to new heights in your spiritual walk with Him. The refining process can be viewed in one of two ways; you can either mumble and complain and wail your way through it, making it much harder and longer and the results less than what God wants for you, OR consider it pure joy! You are getting rid of the things that are holding you back from your potential in Christ, and are being filled with good things straight from Him! Now that is exciting! 

Next time my life is turned upside down, I will do my best to remember His words of encouragement, and do as said in Psalms 46:10 "Be STILL and know that I am God..."