This past summer my family and I went to a historic village museum and were able to watch a blacksmith making nails. He would stir up the coals in his fire and pump the bellows to fan the flame, then when he felt it was hot enough, he would take a rod of iron and heat the end of it in the fire. When the iron was no longer black but glowing red, he would take his snips and cut off a length of approximately the size that he wanted the nail to be. He would begin to hammer this small piece of iron into the shape of a nail. Sometimes the iron would cooperate and would become something the blacksmith could use but a few times it would break under the pounding and it was of no use; it would be thrown in the scrap pile.
Just like that blacksmith took something that needed shaping and moulding, and made something useful out of it, so God does with us. God will use the trials in our life to shape us into something wonderful that He can use. He will allow us to go through things that sometimes are trying and hard but it is only for our good. We have a free will and if we don't consult with God about the choices we are faced with, sometimes we will make mistakes and choose unwisely. But God will even use our poor choices and turn them around for good for those who are following Him.
Everything in your life up until this point has been for a greater purpose. God can and will use every circumstance, every trial, every poor choice to teach us and mould us and refine us so that we reflect Him. We are made in His image but if we are to be more Christlike we need to allow Him to place us on His anvil and make us into something useful for His kingdom.
Isaiah 48:10 "See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction."
Proverbs 17:3 "The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the heart."
Are you willing to be made into what He wants you to be? Are you willing to step into the furnace and allow Him to take the impurities out of you so that you will be pure and holy as He is? So many people feel that they have made just too many mistakes to become something great for God. They feel that they got themselves into this mess so why should God help them out of it? But if that is you let me remind you once again that even our poor choices can be used to shape us into a vessel God can pour His Holy Spirit into and use for His kingdom. Your life is not a mistake. You are not an accident. You have been chosen by the Most High God to do something great for Him. It's time to shake off the apathy and the lethargy and allow God to work on us.
AWAKE, O ISRAEL (by Merla Watson)
Awake, O Israel, put off thy slumber and the truth shall set you free;
For out of Zion comes thy Deliverer, in the year of jubilee.
O, hallelujah, O, hallelujah, hallelujah, praise the Lord! (repeat)
For in the furnace of much affliction, I have chosen thee;
Behold, and so for iron I'll give thee silver and for brass I'll give thee gold.
O, hallelujah, O, hallelujah, hallelujah, praise the Lord! (repeat)
Thou art My chosen, for I have sought thee, thou are graven on My hand;
And I will gather all those that gather, they shall come back to their land.
O, hallelujah, O, hallelujah, hallelujah, praise the Lord!
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