Sunday Reading: Proverbs 17:3
Key Verse: Proverbs 17:3
3 The refining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, but Jehovah tries the hearts.
Devotion:
When I was young I was able to go on a tour with the school through a steel works where they turned iron ore (rock) into steel through various steps most of which involved so much heat that we could not stand close to them. I can still remember all the smoke that used to come from that steel works as all of the impurities were burned off time after time; the red dust getting absolutely everywhere. But the iron and steel that that dirty place created was used all round the country. There was no way that that place could be used for anything other than the production of iron and steel because none of the equipment was right for anything else. The same would be for a furnace or plant where they produced silver or gold; they would be purpose build.
Each one of these plants do use a whole lot of heat to burn off impurities and to melt the metals into blocks that can then be carried, transported or used in other ways. Each plant works at the raw materials slowly taking away the impurities until what is left behind is as pure as they can make it. But if you were to study any material that comes out of these places there is always some impurities left behind. We are like that raw material, full of junk to start with. When God gets hold of us He blasts away at the junk to leave behind something that is closer to the finished product. We will always have our share of faults that we carry around with us, but the more that we are willing to allow God to work with us the purer that He will be able to make us!
It takes a lot of heat and many processes to make steel out of iron. If we would get too close to that process we would find out the hard way just how hot things can get. God, thankfully, is not going to burn us to a crisp just so that He can get rid of our sins. He has already allowed Jesus Christ to pay for our sins so all that is required is that we allow Him to work in our lives to purify our hearts for His will and His work.
Points to Ponder:
Do you listen to His call?
Are you submitting to His trying?
