When I Am Tried
Job, in all his troubles, still declared, I know my redeemer lives. He didn’t accuse God falsely, he didn’t curse God, but he held onto hope, even when he didn’t understand.
In chapter 23:8-10; Job says, Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive him. On the left hand, where he does work, but I cannot behold him. He hides on the right hand, that I cannot see him. But he knows the way that I take, when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
Job, looking all around him, on every side, couldn’t find God anywhere, but held onto hope that when this trial was over, he would come forth as gold. God knows the way I take, he knows I haven’t turned from his commandments, he knows I’ve kept his ways, my feet have held fast to his path.
God knew everything about Job, and he knows everything about each one of us. God is like a refiners fire. A refiner of fire is a goldsmith who melts down the gold to separate the pure from the impure (dross). It’s a process that has to be repeated over and over until all the impurities are removed. The goldsmith turns the heat up to 1943 degrees F.
He knows the gold is pure when he can see his own reflection in it.
This is why trials are so hard at times, God is refining those who belong to him. The road of sanctification will cost you. It’s a road of fiery trials, testings, and times of being refined and purged. God will keep turning up the heat, until our impurities are rooted out of us. The works of the flesh, the sin nature, anything that hinders us from becoming more like him. Being in God’s melting pot will cost us a continual dying out to the flesh. Mortifying our members, so that the deeds of the flesh are dead and buried. It’s testing ground of our faith, not to harm us, but to see if we will remain faithful to him, trust him when we can’t see or feel him. It’s a turning from walking in the flesh to walking in the Spirit.
God knows our thoughts, actions, works, whether they be good or bad. God will allow things to come in our life to reveal to us what is in our heart. What we need to repent of, turn away from, get delivered from.
Malachi 3:2; But who may abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he appears, for he is like a refiners fire, and like fullers soap.
Daniel 12:10a; Many shall be purified and made white (cleansed) and tried (refined).
Ephesians 5:27; That He might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless.
God’s refining fire is to bring us back into the image and likeness of him, so that when all the impurities are burned out of us, all he will be able to see, is his own reflection. God bless.
Come join us at the Pearl of Great Price Tabernacle, 212 County Road 2232 in Douglassville. Our Sunday church service begins at 11 a.m. Call 430-342-4829 for prayer and any other information.