In the refining process of gold, you take a precious metal from the ground, and then you heat it up like crazy. And an amazing thing happens when you heat it up. It’s called the dross- the impurities go straight to the top, and the person who’s refining the gold swipes those impurities off the top. And when the gold cools down, what you’re left with, is more pure gold.
Because you got rid of the impurities.
That is the concept.
When you are maturing and growing in your emotions when things feel out of control, or you’re losing worth or trying to gain worth- you see the impurities.
Why? Because they’re based on that situation. So if you’re responding in your emotions, in an immature way, then you’re being impure or unhealthy. So here’s what I want you to think about. We have these phenomenal opportunities. Paul talks about it. Peter talks about it. James talks about it. When you go through trials and guess what, Christians? Yes, He does put you through difficult, tough, painful things. This is the truth of the gospel, He allows us to go through these situations. We see it in the bible, right? We see God is a God who does punish. He is somebody who corrects.
He is somebody who brings difficult times in our lives. That’s who he is. Why does he do that? So that he can refine us. Now, there are some reasons we don’t even know, take a look at Job, take a look at what He allowed there. We still don’t know why He allowed that, right? That was his choice. But take a look at the processes in your life, where God is actually using struggles or trials to cause you to be better. Now, here’s what we see all the time. There is confusion in how God loves us, well, there is discipline and structure in that love. When we are going through trials, so many times we don’t recognize it may be the King of the universe who is putting us through the trial- to be refined.
It very well may be God who is giving us the struggle. Why? In hopes that we would grow, that we would learn from it, that we would take this and become stronger. So when these trials come or the struggles come in the future, we’re actually able to handle them better. We’re able to make better decisions. We’re able to self manage our own emotions. But here’s what happens in so many people’s lives. The struggle comes, the trial comes, the metal gets heated up, our impurities come to the surface. And instead of wiping them right off the top and making a more pure, healthier version of ourselves, we drag that dross right back down into our metal. We choose to have the same horrible responses or bad responses. We choose to be emotional or be unhealthy instead of at the moment, being able to get rid of the impure response. Instead of being able to make smart decisions again, realizing we can choose a different response, we grab that impurity and drag it back down.
This is the opportunity for us to become purer. For us to become refined. For us to make better decisions.
Start asking yourself, what are the negative things I’m saying to myself? Start looking for the impurities when they come up and wipe them away. Take ownership of yourself in the moment. Start managing your emotions in the moment. What am I experiencing right now? And how am I choosing to respond? Let me fix that. If you can do this, and I know you can do this, we teach people to do this all the time. You can allow The Lord to refine you- to show you the areas He desires for you to clean up to glorify Him.
Listen to the full podcast below!