The Refining Process

For you, God, tested us; you refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance. (Psalm 66:10-12) 

If I’ve learned anything in my years of following Jesus, it’s that experiencing God’s blessings is a process. Being a Christian doesn’t include very many quick fixes. There are no microwaved blessings and instant successes. Living life according to God’s will and God’s timing involves a process. And the psalmist who wrote today’s key passage wants us to not only acknowledge where we’ve been and where we are, but also the process it took for God to get us here. 

The writer says that God tested His people by putting them through a refiner’s fire. The image here is of a refiner who uses fire to purify and perfect metal. He would put the metal in the fire and skim off the impurities that floated to the top. The refiner would repeat the process until the metal shined. It did not matter how shiny the metal looked to others or how attractive it was to onlookers. It wasn’t pure or great until it had been in the fire long enough by the refiner’s standards.

The testing of God is the process by which he prepares us for all that He has for us. He is always maturing us, always perfecting us, and always refining us. Not so that we become perfect, but so we become more like Him. 

That’s the final step the refiner would take when he worked with the metal. He would keep the metal in the fire until he could see his own image in the reflection off the metal. That is how he knew the metal was ready.

So friend, if you’re wondering why you’re going what you’re going through, I hope you’ll find peace and comfort in the fact that God is refining you. He wants to purify you and mature you so you can reflect His image. He is trying to get us to a place where we are more like Him and where we are ready for all that He has for us, where the insignificant and unimportant parts of our lives can melt away, making our faith brighter, bigger and stronger than ever.