When things are Heating Up!

"The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts."

Proverbs 17:3

The imagery in this verse suggests that God tests our hearts through the adversity and the trials that we face in life.  A crucible is a ceramic or metal container that is used to melt down metals.  This is how silver is purified.  You place the silver in the crucible and heat it to extreme temperatures, thus burning off the impurities and leaving behind the purest form of the silver.  Likewise, a furnace is for gold with the similar purpose of melting away the impurities of the gold and leaving the purest form of the gold.  God uses the adversity in our lives to test our hearts.  He wants to know if we are going to trust Him when things start to heat up all around us.  When the trials of life come, know that God has a purpose for the test.  Also, know that the Teacher is always quiet during the test.  The trials and difficulties we face in our lives should be times when we lean on our Heavenly Father the most.  He uses such times to test our hearts to be sure that we are putting Him first in our lives.  But, He does not simply test our hearts to make sure He is first in our lives, we receive a benefit as well.  It is in those difficult times in our lives that the Lord is using to shape our Christian character and our walk.  He uses those times to mold us in the image of his Son, and to grow us up into maturity.  It is important to remember that "all things work together for the good for those that love God, and are called according to His purposes" (Rom. 8:28).  When things get uncomfortable and difficult in our lives that is exactly the time we need to focus more on the God of the universe rather than the problems of this world.  God uses these times of discomfort in our lives to grow us and shape us.  Remember a time in your life that God got you through.  Looking retrospectively at that particular struggle, I am sure it ended up helping to shape who you are today.  God uses all these things for our good because He wants to make us strong people, with more peace and joy in our lives.  When we get through the troubling times of our lives by leaning on God, He gets the glory and we look back and see that we got the benefit of peace and growth from difficult circumstances.  What troubling and difficult thing are you going through right now?  Is it a relationship, financial issues, work related problems?  Whatever it is know that in these times when things are all heating up around you, God is using them to have you lean on Him and working in them for the purpose of creating the purest, strongest you that the world has ever seen!  Love you all!  Praying for you and yours!  Have a blessed day, it's your choice!