Reading a passage in Zechariah this morning about the whole of Christs sufferings, especially his agonies in the garden and on the cross, when he endured unspeakable anguish till Divine justice was fully satisfied. Smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. Later in the passage the writer says, And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined and will test them as gold is tested. I read a passage like this and ask the Lord, “Why do the ones that You have chosen and love need to be refined and tested?” Personally and maybe in some strange way, I look at love so much differently. I find that, for me, it is not natural, in the flesh, to look at my children and think that I willingly planned to discipline them. Dont get me wrong there were times when I would succumb to discipline when their actions were not socially acceptable. I usually wanted to believe that they didnt need me to discipline them and that they would simply grow out of the particular stage they were in. I wanted to believe that I could show love by having the self control to not discipline them and wait patiently for them to grow up. This is what my flesh wanted to believe, however I found out that I had it all wrong. Why do I say that my way of thinking is absolutely wrong? Well because God is perfect love and He does not think this way. As a follower of Jesus Christ, I need to align myself with Him: both as a parent and as a child of God. God says in this passage that He brings His own people into the fire. It is in the fire that we are refined like silver and tested like gold. If He is comparing us to precious metals, then we have to assume that the fire is pretty hot! The Lord does this for our good. He wants us to call on His name and know that He will answer because we are His people. His people have to be trained, disciplined, tested and refined to think His thoughts and to live in His ways. Because our flesh is so strong, we resist His work and end up turning from the Lord or blaming Him. We accuse Him of not being loving or caring. We wonder why He isnt answering our prayers or rescuing us from those hot circumstances, without realizing that He is the One who has placed us there. God loves you. He is all powerful and can absolutely rescue us but He cares more about us than we can care about ourselves. He needs us to change to be more like Him. Unfortunately that takes time in the fire. We need to trust Him because this is only for a season. For when we are trained, we will produce a harvest of righteousness and a deep peace knowing that He is our God. Ponder this! SELAH!
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 09:36:19 +0000
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