Being Refined

 "The crucible is for silver, 

and the furnace is for gold, 

and the LORD tests hearts."  

Proverbs 17:3 

This has been an October like never before! As I continue working at the Orchard for their busy season, Sam and I have enjoyed breaking many records:

--480lbs of fudge made in a single week 

(doubled last year's record)

--nearly 80 batches of donuts in a week 

(between 4500-5000 donuts)

--more work hours than I care to tell...but we beat Tyler's record, and that's all that mattered. ;)

Now record-making is fun...but it sure is tiring! And when you're tired and working an often stressful job...natural cheerfulness and strength wear very very thin. Our prayers were (and are still!) for His endurance, strength, patience, and peace in the middle of what certainly does NOT naturally produce those things! And He has proved Himself faithful over and over.

But it got me thinking.

It's so easy to believe that the attitudes of our hearts are caused by the circumstances we're in. Or that "I wouldn't be this way if ______"

However, as I thought about it...

Circumstances don't produce attitudes--they only reveal what is already deep inside the heart. 

"...out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." 

Matt. 12:34

It can be so easy to blame things like

sickness,

a hard job,

lack of sleep,

unfairness in other people,

hormones,

the weather.

And YES these things contribute. But not to the forming or creation of the bad attitude. Only to the revealing of it. There are already issues--deeper issues than a rainy day--that result in poor responses to the less-than-perfect circumstances. As the verse above says, "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks," and what comes out in trying moments is often

impatience,

anger,

whining,

complaints,

arguments,

self pity.

How quickly I need to recognize that these responses (even if I only feel them in my heart and never express them) aren't the only thing that needs repenting of. Usually there is either pride or selfishness at the root. Bad attitudes never come from "nowhere" and aren't excusable in any way. For if I have been given everything in Christ, and have the power that raised Christ from the dead available to me in the day-to-day, there just aren't any excuses left.

It's not that you'll never be tempted...

or never feel depressed...

or never have physical issues...

or never be discouraged...

It's that you have the ability in Christ to respond in godly ways to those feelings, whether you take hold of it or not.

 

There's something really beautiful about all this though.

 "My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights."

Proverbs 3:11-12

  Our Father loves us far too much to allow the sin in our hearts to remain buried. He sends us the hard circumstances which cause the more deeply entrenched sin to surface--sin we wouldn't even realize the depths of if it weren't stirred up--that we might recognize it, repent of it, and root it out as we run to Him for forgiveness and cleansing.

"And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people'; and they will say, 'The LORD is my God.'"  

Zechariah 13:9

So these "hard places" are part of Christ's love for us, desiring that we should be more holy and Christ-like at the deepest levels; levels that often take some hard-core affliction to get to. 

Don't be afraid of it.

Let it do its work!

Oh, to be so deeply formed by Christ that the sharpest pain and the deepest anguish bring forth worship and praise to the One who so lovingly ordained it. To have such perfect trust and faith in His love and providence.

"But He knows the way that I take; when He has tried me, I shall come out as gold. My foot has held fast to his steps; I have kept His way and have not turned aside." 

Job 23:10-11 

And oh to be so deeply formed by Christ that I can live and act and speak faithfully in the day-to-day trials and rubs, singing out His praise even when my shoulders ache, or hurtful things are said, or everyone around me has a "drag-you-down" attitude.

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me"

Psalm 51:10