There Was Another in the Fire
We’ve heard and have been talking a lot about underlying conditions lately. According to doctors, underlying conditions are what accelerate COVID-19 in many people. When this disease took hold of our country, churches had to close their doors, but what was exposed in the process was what we needed to see - our worship of a gathering was bigger than our worship of the King.
How can we shift the culture of something that we helped build? I think we all wanted to see the glory of God, but it was covered by sound systems, lights, fog, and a preacher. The need to be seen became greater than seeing Jesus. How can we go forward as Christians, knowing that our time of large gatherings is on hold? This time of refining fire for the church has been necessary, because we are the church! The refinement starts in us.
A couple of years ago, my husband and I were going through a rough time. God had miraculously showed up and restored us, but I was still struggling in the process. Night after night he was showing up to my husband in experiential ways, but I was feeling weak and frustrated. One night, I had a dream where I was sitting on the ground next to a dog bowl. Jesus walked up to me (I only saw his feet) and asked, “Will you continue to drink with the dogs or will you let me cleanse you?” I opted for the cleansing. At that moment, I woke up and my entire body was on fire. I asked Him for more, knowing that the only way to restoration was purification. I needed purification from the lies I told myself, from the negativity that was residing in me, from the wall I had built between myself and God, from the longing of perfection and the need to be seen.
Why do we want to be in the refining fire when it can be so painful? In 2 Timothy 2:20 - 26, Paul talks about us being a pure container for Christ and this purity leads to being dedicated for honorable purposes. We are to flee the desires of youth and pursue righteousness, love, faith, peace and call out to the Lord with a pure heart. We are to not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach and not resentful. Let that last part sink in a bit. We’ve seen so much division in the church in terms of COVID, race relations, politics. So many have been so set to let their opinions be known, but how have we let Christ refine us in this season so we can be purified for him? How can we pursue honorable purposes without first leaning into righteousness?
How can we move toward refinement? First, we surrender. I’m always reminded of when my husband and I would take trips to the Biltmore in NC. There was an ironsmith there that would show the process of creating something from iron. To acquire obedience from the metal obey, he would first have to heat it up to a high temperature to make it malleable. This is what the Lord does with us. When we welcome his refining fire, we make ourselves malleable and obedient to his will instead of our own. Then, the ironsmith would bend and mallet the iron until he would create something beautiful. This is what God asks of us. To lay down our immaturity, our opinions, our greed and our hate and he can then mold us into the creation he always meant for us to be. We are made beautiful in the process.
The most awesome part about this is that he never just leaves us in the fire. He’s there with us. When we are able to hold his hand in the process, we leave the fire as the purest bride. We are hand-in-hand with the bridegroom.
How can the process that starts with us begin to shape the culture around us? We are made for more than the four walls of a building. We are to be the light of the world with Christ shining in and through us. I want to inspire you to let God’s refining fire consume you, purify you, and bring you to a place of being a world changer. We are more than keyboard warriors. He has made us more than conquerors and the world, particularly our nation, needs us to act like it.