Is the fire lit ? (3)

Sunday June 13, 2021

Is the fire lit ? (3)

1 Peter 1.7 - (Difficulties) test the reality of your faith and increase its value. The fire tests and refines gold well, yet one day it will disappear. Much more precious is the faith that has stood the test. It will earn you praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ appears. (Living Word)

If, as we saw yesterday, fire can destroy, it can also purify, purify. In our human conception, we readily accept the "good enough". The more "difficult" will only accept the "good". "Perfectionists" will only accept the "best", but God only accepts "excellence". Excellence is synonymous with perfection ! This perfection, He wants to find it in us, did not Jesus say : "Therefore be perfect..." (Matthew 5.48).

To achieve this excellence, the Lord uses the fire of the "school of life". This fire is there to purify us, to purify us. Let us remember Isaiah who was purified by the embers of the altar. Let us remember again the three friends of Daniel, purified by their passage in the fiery furnace. Of the furnace, Peter speaks of it in his first epistle, chapter 4, verse 12. He tells us that it is not "a strange thing", that it should not surprise us. You are probably going to call me a masochist if I say to you : "If you are not experienced, something is wrong, it is not normal". Yet it is the Word of God !

The fire of the trial is at first a subject of sorrow (Hebrews 12:11), but then, when the "test" has been passed, the fire brings peaceful fruit because the approving gaze of the Lord soothes us. When fire forms us, we deprogram, break us, stir us up... let's look after. If we really want to be like Jesus, this is the way to go. Excellence can only be achieved through long, arduous work that requires perseverance and tenacity.

My beloved, to be like Jesus, to live his miracles, his power, his authority over the dark world, his sermons full of fire... we must consider being a man of sorrows, accustomed to suffering. I know my "ego" is rebelling against this idea. God will know how to close his mouth by making me pass through the fire of the crucible. Lord, let no burning smell cling to me.

Good reflection.

Source (Ezekiel 37 Ministries)