“These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire— may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
1 Peter 1:7-9
I used to work in an office that overlooked a steel mill. Across the property boundary was a rail track where rail carriages would line up to receive the dross that resulted from the iron refining process. I watched as carriage after carriage was filled with the disgusting steaming metallic sludge that was skimmed off the purified iron, which was being refined to produce smooth shiny stainless steel.
The same process is employed to refine gold. Gold is precious. Gold is beautiful. However, most gold jewelry we wear is not pure, it is an alloy mix of gold and other metals. When gold is purified, this mixture is heated to a temperature of between 1,000 and 1,100 degrees Celsius. When the metallic mixture reaches this temperature, it melts. In the furnace, the pure gold sinks to the bottom of the crucible while the impure alloy metals separate and rise to the surface. This is called the dross. The sludge of dross is then skimmed off and discarded, leaving beautiful precious pure 24-carat gold behind in the crucible.
You are precious. You are beautiful. You have deep hidden qualities that God rejoices over. He who is holy has called you to be beautifully holy as he is holy. There is an old song that goes, “Purify my heart, let me be as gold and precious silver. Refiner's fire, my heart's one desire is to be holy.” Only in the heat of God’s furnace can you, and I, be refined to become holy. Only in the heat of God’s furnace will the dross of the old life rise to the surface that it may be skimmed off, revealing beautiful precious qualities of holiness within you.
Are you in a furnace today? Be encouraged, your Lord is refining you. Be encouraged, if you’re in the furnace today, he is with you. Charles Spurgeon said, “As sure as God puts His children in the furnace, He will be in the furnace with them.”