The Refiner
I'm slowly learning the importance of being refined.
The actual definition of Refined is with impurities or unwanted elements having been removed by processing.
The exciting thing is that God is continuously refining us or molding us into the people that he has created us to be. He allows us to go through circumstances good and bad to help shape us. Going through situations that seem so harsh, help us as individuals to grow. I know what you're thinking because I've been in that place where I tell myself, "How can God possibly be using this devastating circumstance for good?" God never intends to cause harm to us. He already knows what's going to happen even before we do. The thing is that God uses those moments to show himself to us and strengthen our character.
About a month ago, I read about the process of an Olive. Who knew, huh? Olives go through a process to eventually produce oil. In this process, there's a period of washing, soaking, cracking, salting and then a period of pressing. Using this process figuratively speaking…we go through these steps, and then we get to the deeper ones…being cracked open. Being cracked open is when God desires that vulnerability from us and gives us an insight of the things deep in our hearts that we need to handle. Then we hit the salted stage. This is where God begins to restore, this is where he begins molding, this is where he begins healing and filling in the gaps. Finally, we reach the last and final stage pressed to produce oil, this is where we experience the crushing...those challenging moments that lead to us producing oil in the end.
Thinking about what an Olive goes through, reminded me that God is bringing up beauty from the ashes. He's constantly refining us, and another way to see it is through a blacksmith lens. The way they take scrappy metal and put it through a blazing fire to get rid of all the impurities, then they start hitting it to mold it into what they want. It goes back in the fire while they keep working at it until they get their final product. God is the blacksmith, and even if we break or we aren't where we need to be...God will keep molding us and putting us through the fire to make us perfect.
I realize more and more that Gods not done with me! And he definitely is not done with you. God never promised that this life would be easy, but he promised that he would be there with us. Someone very close to me once told me, "It's hard right now, but eventually, it gets better." I had the habit of sitting around and dwelling on all the things that were going on in my life that I sometimes threw myself a pity party. It wasn't until recently that I started to see things in a positive way rather than a negative way. The only reason that I had decided to change my way of thinking was because
1. It's life, and I needed to grow up and act like the adult I was
2. Through a bible study I did, I began to see through the seasons I went through that seemed hopeless, or those moments where I experienced disappointments and rejection, God worked through it with me. Through this and looking back at the olive process...it gave me a better understanding of why I went through what I went through. God is molding me into something beautiful!
3. Someone close to me had told me, "Start seeing things through the lens of a blessing."
I just want you to know through the seasons you may go through, remember that IT'S ONLY TEMPORARY...it doesn't last forever. Through each situation that you may face...God knew ahead of time, but he also knows that you have what it takes to get through this, and he needs you to go through this to help you become a better, more durable and capable version of yourself. Hang in there, beloved! God has you in the palm of his hand, and he'll carry you through it!