The day we received the phone call that our son had been arrested, my initial reaction was to write out Romans 8:28–
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (NKJV).
Then I turned that Scripture into a prayer. Honestly, when I prayed that Scripture back to God, my desire was for Him to keep my son out of prison. To me, that would be good.
My son, Stephen, surrendered his life to Christ in the county jail before the trial. That was good! Isn’t that what God wants is for us to come to Him through His Son?
Since Jesus came to set the captives free and Stephen received Jesus, then I thought that after the trial Stephen would be free in the physical sense.
But the expectation went unmet as Stephen was convicted and sent to prison.
When my son was sent to prison, we lived in El Paso, Texas. As I walked and talked with the Lord daily, I looked at the mountain in the distance. The words El Paso kept coming to my thoughts, so when I got home I put the Spanish words in the Spanish-English translator.
Paso literally means “step.” Or it can mean the passing of time. As it relates to geography, it means a pass as in a mountain pass. (Source: Spanishdict.com)
I kept thinking about the meaning of El Paso and the phrase “When you pass through” came to my thoughts. So I googled the phrase and Isaiah 43:2 popped up. It reads:
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned,
Nor shall the flame scorch you. (NKJV)
Those words from Isaiah 43:2 brought a great deal of comfort to me. Yes, we were passing through the waters, but the Lord was with us. We walked through the fire, but God promised we would not be burned. Then I realized that this was the Lord’s refining process to test and purify my heart.
The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, But the Lord tests the hearts. (Proverbs 17:3 NKJV)
You see my friend, I prayed Romans 8:28 as if I were playing my “get out of jail for free” card in Monopoly. But the Lord used this circumstance to purify my heart in response to asking for Him to work all things out for good.
What does it mean to be refined? According to Dictionary.com, refine means:
- To bring to a fine or pure state; free from impurities
- To purify from what is coarse, vulgar, or debasing; make elegant or cultured.
In the refiner’s fire, all the issues and conditions of my heart that did not line up with the word of God rose to the surface. The depression, anxiety, guilt, fear, anger, unforgiveness, and such manifested. Those issues became exposed so they could be dealt with and removed from life.
Denial and avoiding issues keeps us in bondage. Exposing, confessing, and repentance sets our hearts free!
God uses our situations to refine our lives—whether the incident is own doing or someone else’s. We must also allow the fire to purify our lives so we can be purified for God’s glory.
“These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold–though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world” (1 Peter 1:7 NLT).
The refiner’s fire is a process, but remember when we walk through the fire with God we will not be burned!
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