“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:6-7
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 are 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.”