Refiner’s Fire

In all 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 the proven genuineness of your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
- The Apostle Peter, 1 Peter 1:6-9

Growing up, I loved Math tests.

Don’t hate me! The teacher would hand out the tests upside down on our desks, then say, “Go!” I’d turn over my test and fly through the problems, seeking to be the first one done. Often, I was! I loved Math tests. English tests, on the other hand, were an entirely different animal. I still did well, but they were not nearly as much fun. Diagramming sentences and figuring out grammar was not my idea of a good time.

Life is much the same way. There are some tests I relish, similar to math tests, like trying to get a recipe right or win at a video game. But, most of the tests of life are more like English tests, such as having to choose between right and wrong, healthy and unhealthy, or good and bad relationships. Even when I do well, it doesn’t always mean I enjoy it.

When Job was tested and afflicted with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head (Job 2:7), it was not a test he liked, by any stretch of the imagination.

In Job 3, we are told that Job’s suffering was so great he cursed the day he was born. There is nothing about that that sounds like fun to me.

Yet, as time went on, Job began to better understand and embrace his suffering as a test, and he passed with flying colors. In Job 23:10, we read Job declaring,

But He [God] knows the way I take;
When He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.
- Job 23:10

God’s refining fire does not necessarily feel good, but like Job, we can rejoice in our sufferings, our grief, and our trials, knowing that the proven genuineness of our faith will result in the salvation of our souls.

Back in Peter’s Day, clay pots were baked to give them strength. The process would crack the pots that were flawed, but the ones that survived were marked with the Greek word “dokimos,” meaning they had passed the test and were ready for their intended use.

Friends, we don’t have to like the tests of life: suffering, grief, and trials, but we are called to rejoice in them, such that, as Peter writes, “the proven genuineness of our faith, which is of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire, may result in praise, glory and honor...”  Like the clay pots refined by fire, we find out what we are made of when we are tested. Then we, too, will be marked as “dokimos,” proven by the Refiner’s Fire and having passed the test. Now ready to be used by God for His purposes.

May we rejoice in God’s refining fire, that we will find out what we are made of and prove ourselves ready for the Kingdom of God.

Pastor Ken

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