Holiness: Through the fire, Part I

“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 Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:7

As followers of the Messiah, there is one aspect of our journey that most of us don’t like: going through the fire, i.e., trials and testing. Most of the time, the mountain of trials can be scary and painful; we don’t like them, but need to accept them.

The process of purifying silver is a wonderful analogy for our lives.  In order to purify the silver, it has to be put in the fire. Once it emerges, the black filthy residue has to be cleaned, and then it has to be put back in the fire over and over again until it is truly pure. Only when the silversmith sees his own reflection in the silver is the silver considered pure. This is how our Creator is fashioning us to reflect Him…

Let me encourage us, followers of the Messiah, to view the trials and testing in our lives through new lenses. Instead of fighting them, complaining about them, praying for them to disappear etc., let us welcome them, accepting them as part a process through which God is allowing us to become more pure. He allows us to go through the fire to refine us and clean us from anything that is not from Him. The end result will be that His reflection will shine through us so that others will see Him in us, and will come to know Him.

Let us reflect, and allow God to work in our lives, to do away with anything that is not from Him, to clean us and refine us, so that He will reflect His image through our lives.