Daily Reading // Isaiah 48:1-22
READY // SILENCIO
Take a moment to quiet your mind and prepare your heart for your time with the Lord.
READ // LECTIO
Read the passage above up to three times aloud. Allow yourself to feel the words as they are read.
REFLECT // MEDITATIO
Now direct your focus on the words, phrases concepts or sentences that got your attention. What is God speaking to you today through His word?
Isaiah 48:10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
A friend of mine uses an interesting saying, “Everybody wants a revolution, but nobody wants to do the dishes.” There are certain actions or results that are exciting and even romantic, but the reality is much more mundane and utilitarian.
Everybody was to be pure and refined, but nobody wants to go through the furnace. Of course not! Have you ever seen a furnace? It glows red from intense heat. Those who work the furnace have to wear significant protective clothing. It is made to reduce solid to liquid. To go to the melting point and beyond. To eliminate past shapes and molds to make knew ones. To bring impurities buried deep within the solid metal to the surface where it can be removed. It’s not a simple process and can’t be taken lightly.
What can remove impurities and reshape a human soul? The best furnace is affliction. Peter picks up this same picture when he says:
1 Peter 1:6-7 (NKJV) 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith, [being] much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,
James and even Paul use this same imagery. I don’t think any of them are saying we have to like the furnace of affliction. At least I can appreciate the work that it does in my life.
RESPOND // ORATIO
Pray in response to what the Lord has spoken to you.
Jesus, You suffered in the furnace of affliction. Not to purify Yourself, but to purify me. As You were with Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego, so You are with me in every furnace. Do Your refiner’s work in me. Amen.
Tomorrow’s reading -> Isaiah 49:1-13
I agree! Great point.
Another good post, Pastor Jim. I've said before that I hate the process but I love the results. I think it's almost harder to watch the refining process in the lives of those we love than to go through it ourselves.