The Crucible

The crucible tests silver, and the furnace tests gold, but the one who tests hearts is Adonai. (Proverbs 17:3 CJB)

Adonai - Lord or Master - the one with ultimate authority. He is the one who tries the heart, revealing the true intent of a man's character. We may think we know our heart well, but in actuality, God knows it much better than we do ourselves. That is why we trust him to not only have our heart, but to reveal what is in there that needs to be built up or changed entirely.

The crucible of affliction is nothing we like to endure, but what gets revealed in times of affliction might just give us a little bit of revelation as to who we are, what we believe, who we trust in, and what motivates us from within. It could be we discover some truths about ourselves that we didn't even know were present in our lives - like lust, prideful thoughts, or malicious plans.

When God reveals, he also sets about to 'root out' those things that only the fire of his Spirit can reveal. When a fire roars through the forest lands, what can be revealed was often quite well hidden from the naked eye. That is the same with our hearts - we have cleverly hidden away some things (attitudes, beliefs, mistrusts, hurts, hangups) that we think are hidden for good. What we don't realize is that wherever the fire of his Spirit 'ignites' our heart, the sooner those 'hidden things' will stand zero chance of remaining 'hidden'.

When they are revealed, what do we do with them? Do we hold onto them, attempting to cover them up again? Do we confess that we knew they were there and ask for his help to rid ourselves of the debris? Or do we deny those things and attempt to 'skirt the work' of being rid of them? We can respond in so many different ways to God's 'fire' within, but there is no greater hope than to just admit those things exist and then seek his help in 'rooting them out' of our lives once and for all.

Beauty for ashes is a good way to describe what God does when he sets out to bring the fire of his Spirit alive within us. He might just reduce a few things within us to ashes in the process of bringing so much beauty from within. Without the ashes, the debris might not ever be fully cleared. The fire may seem 'cruel' or 'unnecessary' to some, but if we want purity, we need the ashes. The fire affects whatever it touches. If we have declared certain places in our lives 'off limits' to God's touch, don't be surprised when a little 'fire' begins to show us those specific places that need 'uncovering' and 'removal'. Just sayin!