God ordains trials to test the reality of our faith in a way that’s similar to the process of purifying precious metals. Gold, for example, is purified through a process of high temperature heating or chemical exposure. According to Sciencing, an online magazine, “If the gold is a low grade ore, then it is broken up into chunks that are then put in carefully lined pads and treated with a dilute cyanide solution, which dissolves the gold. For high grade ore, the metal is sent to a grinding mill and made into a powder. Refractory ore contains carbon and is heated to over 1000 degrees.”
But God says that our faith is even more precious than gold, which is perishable. For this reason, He sometimes turns up the thermostat. He heats up the furnace of affliction, in order to reveal impurity in our hearts, so that it can be skimmed off. As the apostle Peter writes, our faith is “tested by fire” when we are “grieved by various trials.” Greek scholar, Kenneth Wuest, provides a beautiful illustration of God’s refining fire.
“The picture here is of an ancient goldsmith who puts his crude gold ore in a crucible, subjects it to
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