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A process of purification
God's great purpose for His people is not to leave us the way we are when we first come to Him. He isn't interested in keeping us the same, but in changing us into people who are less of who we are and more like Him. How does He go about making these changes? Through a process of purification.
When we hear a word like purification, it has a nice ring in our ears. We think of purified water, or purified air, and we say to ourselves, "Purification...that sounds like something I can get on board with." But the type of purification we're talking about is painful. It's a process that's only possible through the refining fires of affliction.
The Psalmist understood this. He compared God's purification process with the process of purifying silver, which requires extreme heat in order to be cleansed. When silver is fired up and melted down, its impurities rise to the surface and they're removed. The heat releases the junk inside, and a pure product is produced.
Our purification process is quite similar. When we're subject to fiery trials-a major illness, relationship trials, or a financial crisis-changes occur that wouldn't happen otherwise. The impurities of our fallen fleshly nature are brought to the surface where we can identify them, confess them, and repent of them to God. In His great faithfulness, God skims them off the top of our soul.
In the end, we're still imperfect, but at least we're made more pure than we were before. As time goes on, and as we're continually subjected to purification, we progressively get closer and closer to Christ's character.
Purifier of our hearts, Refiner of our souls, give us strength to endure the process of purification, even when we must go through the fires of affliction.
God's great purpose for His people is not to leave us the way we are when we first come to Him, but to change us into people who are more like Him.
Think about it...
What does this passage reveal to me about God?
What does this passage reveal to me about myself?
Based on this, what changes do I need to make?
What is my prayer for today?
God's great purpose for His people is not to leave us the way we are when we first come to Him. He isn't interested in keeping us the same, but in changing us into people who are less of who we are and more like Him. How does He go about making these changes? Through a process of purification.
When we hear a word like purification, it has a nice ring in our ears. We think of purified water, or purified air, and we say to ourselves, "Purification...that sounds like something I can get on board with." But the type of purification we're talking about is painful. It's a process that's only possible through the refining fires of affliction.
The Psalmist understood this. He compared God's purification process with the process of purifying silver, which requires extreme heat in order to be cleansed. When silver is fired up and melted down, its impurities rise to the surface and they're removed. The heat releases the junk inside, and a pure product is produced.
Our purification process is quite similar. When we're subject to fiery trials-a major illness, relationship trials, or a financial crisis-changes occur that wouldn't happen otherwise. The impurities of our fallen fleshly nature are brought to the surface where we can identify them, confess them, and repent of them to God. In His great faithfulness, God skims them off the top of our soul.
In the end, we're still imperfect, but at least we're made more pure than we were before. As time goes on, and as we're continually subjected to purification, we progressively get closer and closer to Christ's character.
Purifier of our hearts, Refiner of our souls, give us strength to endure the process of purification, even when we must go through the fires of affliction.
God's great purpose for His people is not to leave us the way we are when we first come to Him, but to change us into people who are more like Him.
Think about it...
What does this passage reveal to me about God?
What does this passage reveal to me about myself?
Based on this, what changes do I need to make?
What is my prayer for today?
Scripture
About this Plan
Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale, founded in 1985, has grown to be one of the largest churches in the country, and now has nine regional campuses in Florida in addition to the main campus in Fort Lauderdale. The church has established and now operates dozens of ministries to answer the needs for foster care, addiction recovery, and discipleship training. The church's mission is simply, "make disciples."
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We would like to thank Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale for providing this daily devotional. For more information about the church and other media resources it provides for personal discipleship, please visit www.calvaryftl.org
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