Purifying Fire
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.
James 1:2-4
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.
Romans 5:3-4
We spend most of our lives hoping to avoid occasions that demand great effort, self-restraint, patience, or perseverance, but it’s precisely such occasions that mold us into the type of people God can use.
It was 13 years of enslavement and unjust imprisonment that prepared Joseph to lead a nation. It was 40 years in the desert that prepared Moses to lead the children of Israel through another 40 years in the wilderness. It was 25 years of grueling, faith-testing waiting that prepared Abraham to steward his promised son, Isaac. It was 30 years of waiting before Jesus was unveiled to the world.
Those who are willing to endure the purification and preparation of God the longest are usually those whom God uses the greatest. Don’t step out of the fire before the preparation is complete.
It’s not simply our preparation God is after, but our death. There’s a death that’s required to be used by God. Death to self. Death to sin. Death to every affection that outweighs our devotion to Him—even, like Abraham, our affection for the good things God has given us.
Perhaps your family is an idol. Perhaps your ministry is an idol. Perhaps it’s your comfort, safety, sense of control, or your reputation.
Sometimes death is quick, but more often it’s slow and painful—the length often depends on our level of cooperation with God’s process. But on the other side of death is resurrection! And oh the glory that awaits us on the other side of our dying.
As one missionary tells new missionaries who’ve just arrived to the field, “Die… and die quickly.” God never uses living men and women—only crucified ones.
We must learn to die so that Christ’s life can live in us. And what a powerful life it is!