“Everyone will be salted with fire.”
Mark 9:49
Tom and I
like to watch a program called “Forged in Fire”. It is a competition between 4
blade smiths, one at a time being eliminated after a series of tests of their
skills and blades, ending with one champion. When the program first came on Tom
watched it by himself but one day I wandered in while he was watching it and I the
next thing I knew, I was hooked as well! I LOVE the heart and attitudes of the
smiths as well as watching what amazing blades they produce with metal, fire, hammers
and grinding! Truly an art form!
“If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly
stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the
Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the
fire will test the quality of each man's work.” 1 Corinthians
3:12-13
Years ago Tom and I were
struggling in our marriage, and with life in general, and one day Tom said to
me that he felt like he was being forged like a piece of metal that God was
heating up and hammering over and over again! This was a great visual and
analogy for what we have come to believe God is actually doing with us! We
believe that our circumstances in life are perfectly ordained by God as
refining fires so that He can remove the dross in our hearts and minds. And once we are purified and ready,
then He can begin the forging process to shape and mold us into the tools and/or weapons He needs us to be
for HIS Kingdom purposes and His Glory! I have called Tom my “refining fire” many times
as it seems like he brings out the worst in me!! LOL! Over time, in my marriage
and relationship with Tom, the Lord has revealed my true heart… the heart I
didn’t even realize I had until my circumstances caused all the yuck (or dross)
to surface. Examples being: my self-righteousness, pride, arrogance, judgmentalism,
criticism, people pleasing, approval seeking, control issues, OCDness… And the
list goes on! I often mention the book “Lies Women Believe and the Truth that
Sets them Free” by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. She says that the lie is, that our
circumstances “make” us who we are, but the truth is, that they “reveal”
who we are!! I love that!
“John answered them all, "I baptize you with water. But one more
powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to
untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
Luke 3:16
It is only through hard and difficult
circumstances that we are able to see the fear, impatience, anxiety, stress,
anger, guilt and shame that is in our hearts, and this is so we can take it to
God and allow Him to transform our hearts and minds into what He has designed
us to be.
We have a
tendency to see hard and difficult circumstances as an attack from the enemy or
blame others for the things that happen to us. But if we change that
perspective and see it as ordained by God, we can look to HIM and ask what it
is that we need to learn from these hard things! Graham Cooke has a great story
that he shares regarding this that we heard about 10 years ago and Tom and I
have referenced it many times saying, “Never resent the “tools” God uses to
shape and mold us!”: Throne Room
“…for our "God is a consuming
fire." Hebrews
12:29
“If you will give God your right to
yourself, He will make a holy experiment out of you --- and His experiments
always succeed. The one true mark of a saint of God is the inner creativity
that flows from being totally
surrendered to Jesus Christ. In the life of a saint there is this
amazing Well, which is a continual Source of original life. The Spirit of God
is a Well of water springing up perpetually fresh. A saint realizes that it is God who engineers his circumstances;
consequently there are no complaints, only unrestrained surrender to Jesus. Oswald, My Utmost for His Highest,
June 13th
I love how Oswald hits on this topic
many times throughout the year, reminding me that it is God who engineers my
circumstances and to STOP complaining but just surrender to Jesus, allowing Him
to do the work He needs to do in my heart. That is what it is all about, isn’t
it? Surrender? That is what the metal does in the smith’s hands, it doesn’t
fight back, whine or complain, or try to wiggle out from the hands of the smith,
but allows the smith to do his job to make an amazing tool or weapon.
“Do not put out the Spirit's fire…” 1Thessalonians
5:19
I just
looked up the process for making a blade and this article breaks it down into 6
steps (How to make a Sword - The six step
process). They are
clear that this isn’t the complete process but more of a general guideline,
which is all I need right now. I wanted to give you an idea of what it takes to
forge a sword or tool. This isn’t an easy or quick process, but it takes time,
patience, endurance and lots of skill to forge metal! (The Italics and underlining is mine):
The First step is Forging
A bar of the
desired metal or combination of metals is heated in a forge and then it is
hammered into shape.(The shape of a sword) This
hammering process can take a long time and it is called drawing out the sword.
The sword is worked on in sections (usually around 6 inches in length) and repeatedly hammered and heated until it comes into
the desired shape .This process is
repeated many times and the sword is often heated then allowed to cool
without hammering. This is required by the metal to keep the desired properties of strength and flexibility.
Once this step is completed the sword is in the proper shape but the properties
of the metal make it very brittle and something has to be done to give
flexibility to it.
Step Two: Annealing
Annealing softens the sword and makes it easy to
grind into shape. The sword is now
heated and then allowed to cool very slowly. Often it is wrapped in an
insulating material to slow down this cooling. It can take as long as 24 hours
and this annealing process makes the
sword soft and easy to grind.
Step Three: Grinding
Now the
blacksmith uses a grinder to work out
the edge and point of the sword. This would also be when any engraving is added. This is not a
completed sword yet. It is still much too soft so it must be hardened.
Step Four: Hardening
Now the sword is heated to a very high temperature and then placed into a quenching
tank. (This is what we always see in the movies). This quenching allows
it to cool quickly and evenly which
will harden the metal. After this hardening the sword is brittle and something must be done to make it strong
yet flexible.
Step Five: Tempering
Again the blade is heated and
quenched. But
now the heating is at a much lower
Step Six: Completion
The sword
blade itself is now complete. Now the additional parts will be added such as
the pommel, the guard and the hilt.
“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may
have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your
faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by
fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when
Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:6-7
This forging process is quite lengthy
and it takes time to do it right! We live in a society of instant gratification
and we have little patience for things that take too long… (WHAT! 6 minutes to
microwave my dinner!? That’s crazy! LOL!). But God is not in a hurry and He
will do whatever He needs to do, and take as long as He needs to take, to make
a great work of art!
While our
trials and difficulties may seem like they are too difficult and even “unfair”,
thinking about them in this new way may help you get through these tough times.
What dross is this “fire” bringing up in me? Am I making the process more
difficult by resisting, fighting, feeling sorry for myself or complaining? I
have to admit, I am guilty on all counts!! DOH!
Father, Help me to surrender at all
times to your refining and forging process! Help me to relax and trust that You
have this and that You are a very skilled Smith who knows what You are doing…
even if it looks like you don’t! Thank you for being patient with my wiggling,
whining and complaining and for this reminder that when you are done, I will be
exactly what you need me to be, a wonderful work of art, for Your purposes and
for Your Glory! Help me to be a strong yet flexible weapon that You can be
proud of!
“I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already
kindled!” Luke 12:49
“They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to
rest on each of them.” Acts 2:3
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