"Fire tests the purity of silver and gold, but the LORD tests the heart."
Proverbs 17:3
Have you ever had the opportunity to tour a foundry or watch as someone worked with molten metal? Maybe you've watched a video of molten metal being poured into molds as the metal is formed into sheets to be stamped into panels for cars. The process of extracting metal from minerals, gathering the liquid metal and purifying the liquid metal is called smelting. The process of smelting gold or silver is fascinating! As the liquid metal continues to heat up the impurities form a darker colored coating across the top of the liquid metal. Occasionally, this coating will flame over and burn off but most times it is simply skimmed off the top and disposed of leaving the pure gold or silver behind. The process is repeated until there are no impurities to be skimmed off the surface. The liquid metal is now ready to be poured into bars or into other forms for production use.
That's how it is with the human heart. Our heart is focused on the impurities of this world. Sin is the impurity. We are constantly bombarded with sin in our daily lives through our thoughts, our words and our actions. But here's the rub, we don't recognize it as sin!! We have become so accustomed to it, so desensitized to it, that we don't see sin the way God sees it. We have a good grasp of the big obvious sins (murder, adultery, stealing) but we struggle to see our thoughts as sin or our words as sin. We certainly don't see these sins as being equal to the major sins listed above. We see them as minor sins or sins of lesser importance. Over time we have applied a ranking to the severity of the sins and have determined that the smaller sins don't REALLY count. God says that ALL sins are equal! If you see a person that you find attractive and you have an impure thought about being with that person then you have already committed the act, the sin, in your heart! AND that sin is equal to ALL other sin including murder! Now think about how many times you have those thoughts... still think you don't sin?
God is constantly testing our hearts to see if there are any impurities left in you. As you spend more time in the Bible you will begin to see sin in the same way that God sees it. It doesn't mean that it still won't happen. You're human and humans are flawed beings!! We cannot go one minute without committing sin. Honestly! We can't! What it means is that you'll recognize the sin for what it really is. Recognition of sin is the first step to not committing the sin. By recognizing the sin, we begin to take steps to prevent the sin from occurring which is similar to skimming the impurities off of the molten metal during the smelting process. As we begin to purify our hearts, God can begin to use us for His work. We move closer to God. As we move closer to God, the purification process continues. It actually increases. We begin to ask God to point out more of our impurities so we can correct them. In the process, we move even closer. We begin to hear His voice on our hearts. It's amazing!!
Please, don't just take my word for it. Try it!! Ask God to come into your life. Ask God to point out one area of your life that you need to clean up. He will present an area of your life that needs to be addressed. Address it!! What ever it is. Do what has been placed on you're heart - no matter how difficult it may seem. Just do it. You will be absolutely amazed at what happens next. Accept Jesus Christ into heart as your LORD and Savior and ask Him to do a complete make over of your heart. It will be the most rewarding adventure you have ever been on. You just need to take the first step. You just need to ignite the fire of faith.
The Shepherd
Return to The Proverbs Challenge
Proverbs 17:3
Have you ever had the opportunity to tour a foundry or watch as someone worked with molten metal? Maybe you've watched a video of molten metal being poured into molds as the metal is formed into sheets to be stamped into panels for cars. The process of extracting metal from minerals, gathering the liquid metal and purifying the liquid metal is called smelting. The process of smelting gold or silver is fascinating! As the liquid metal continues to heat up the impurities form a darker colored coating across the top of the liquid metal. Occasionally, this coating will flame over and burn off but most times it is simply skimmed off the top and disposed of leaving the pure gold or silver behind. The process is repeated until there are no impurities to be skimmed off the surface. The liquid metal is now ready to be poured into bars or into other forms for production use.
That's how it is with the human heart. Our heart is focused on the impurities of this world. Sin is the impurity. We are constantly bombarded with sin in our daily lives through our thoughts, our words and our actions. But here's the rub, we don't recognize it as sin!! We have become so accustomed to it, so desensitized to it, that we don't see sin the way God sees it. We have a good grasp of the big obvious sins (murder, adultery, stealing) but we struggle to see our thoughts as sin or our words as sin. We certainly don't see these sins as being equal to the major sins listed above. We see them as minor sins or sins of lesser importance. Over time we have applied a ranking to the severity of the sins and have determined that the smaller sins don't REALLY count. God says that ALL sins are equal! If you see a person that you find attractive and you have an impure thought about being with that person then you have already committed the act, the sin, in your heart! AND that sin is equal to ALL other sin including murder! Now think about how many times you have those thoughts... still think you don't sin?
God is constantly testing our hearts to see if there are any impurities left in you. As you spend more time in the Bible you will begin to see sin in the same way that God sees it. It doesn't mean that it still won't happen. You're human and humans are flawed beings!! We cannot go one minute without committing sin. Honestly! We can't! What it means is that you'll recognize the sin for what it really is. Recognition of sin is the first step to not committing the sin. By recognizing the sin, we begin to take steps to prevent the sin from occurring which is similar to skimming the impurities off of the molten metal during the smelting process. As we begin to purify our hearts, God can begin to use us for His work. We move closer to God. As we move closer to God, the purification process continues. It actually increases. We begin to ask God to point out more of our impurities so we can correct them. In the process, we move even closer. We begin to hear His voice on our hearts. It's amazing!!
Please, don't just take my word for it. Try it!! Ask God to come into your life. Ask God to point out one area of your life that you need to clean up. He will present an area of your life that needs to be addressed. Address it!! What ever it is. Do what has been placed on you're heart - no matter how difficult it may seem. Just do it. You will be absolutely amazed at what happens next. Accept Jesus Christ into heart as your LORD and Savior and ask Him to do a complete make over of your heart. It will be the most rewarding adventure you have ever been on. You just need to take the first step. You just need to ignite the fire of faith.
The Shepherd
Return to The Proverbs Challenge
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