The Silversmith

Have you ever thought about the silversmith and his job and how he goes about refining the silver. I ran across a scripture yesterday that I have not been able to get off my mind.
Malachi 3:3 He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver...

So I began studying out this scripture and thinking about it, and wondering what it meant and what I could take from it. Job 14:1 says "Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble" so we as Christians should not be surprised when troubles come our way.(This week near by there has been death all around from a miscarriage, 10 month old baby died, 17 year old killed in a car wreck, 60 some year old man killed in a factory nearby, cancers, hospital stays, neighboring church in turmoil, and near and dear to my heart "Johanna" and the list could go on and on for each of us). But even though we know that Job tells us that we are going to have turmoil and troubles it still hurts, and sometimes it hurts bad and it hurts long.

But as I began to studying the silversmith that it talks about in Malachi 3:3 I got a little excited and begin to see a little more of Jesus, and hopefully he began to see a little more of himself in me.

Proverbs 25:4 Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer
Isaiah 1:25 And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin:

The silversmith begins to heat the silver to refine it. He wants to extract all the impurities out of it to get a more pure silver. One that is more usable and pliable. As he heats the silver he must have the exact temperature not to hot, and not to cool. For you see if he gets the temperature to hot he ruins the silver, and if it is not hot enough he has done no good either. Just the right temperature, he keeps his eye on the silver at all times so he can gauge the temperature. The dross(impurities) rise to the top and he can skim the waste off and get rid of it and he has a more pure silver then. He knows that he is done with his silver when he can see his reflection in the silver. What a picture of Christ at work in our lives,(Hallelujah, what a God I serve).

So what can we take from this and how can we apply it to our lives. Beloved, as hard as it is and as difficult as hard times and things are if we can keep our eye on Christ and remember that God allows theses times in our lives to make us more like Christ, the difficult and hard things will not be near as hard or tough to weather. I don't know about you but to know God is refining me and working on and in me to make me more like HIM kinda gets me a little excited. Just to think that God Almighty takes the time to work in my life and HE sees something HE wants to work on in my life thrills me. Hallelujah what a God! Now, I understand what James 1:2 is saying "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations".

I don't know about you but He is still working on Me.
Joan