Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: "Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do, because of my people?" Jeremiah 9:7
When there comes a time when all of God's grace has been thwarted and rejected by human deceit and sinfulness, God will judge His people. When I do not act as I should and continue in deliberate sinful choices, God will judge me. That is a spiritual reality. He will refine away what is wrong to get what is right. He will purge the impurity to make me what I should be for Him.
My sin extorts a heavy price. It weighs my heart down. It destroys my relationships. It wounds me before God and other. It cripples my soul. Even as a vainly try to hide it. I eat the candy of sinful choice and I smile in pride with the decayed teeth of my sin. All the while I think I look pretty good! But the price of such choice is self-destruction... the ultimate cost of NOT being refined by God!
O Lord, Test me. Refine me. Purge from me the clinging refuse of sin. Help me to know that when You do so, I must humble myself and accept that I am as of yet still struggling. But you will remold the refined metal of my life into a sharper sword. Amen.
Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: "Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do, because of my people?" Jeremiah 9:7
When there comes a time when all of God's grace has been thwarted and rejected by human deceit and sinfulness, God will judge His people. When I do not act as I should and continue in deliberate sinful choices, God will judge me. That is a spiritual reality. He will refine away what is wrong to get what is right. He will purge the impurity to make me what I should be for Him.
My sin extorts a heavy price. It weighs my heart down. It destroys my relationships. It wounds me before God and other. It cripples my soul. Even as a vainly try to hide it. I eat the candy of sinful choice and I smile in pride with the decayed teeth of my sin. All the while I think I look pretty good! But the price of such choice is self-destruction... the ultimate cost of NOT being refined by God!
O Lord, Test me. Refine me. Purge from me the clinging refuse of sin. Help me to know that when You do so, I must humble myself and accept that I am as of yet still struggling. But you will remold the refined metal of my life into a sharper sword. Amen.
