Streams in the desert: he will sit as a refiner.

He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. (Malachi 3:3)

“Our Father, who seeks to perfect His saints in holiness, knows the value of the refiner’s fire. It is with the most precious metals that a metallurgist will take the greatest care. He subjects the metal to a hot fire, for only the refiner’s fire will melt the metal, release the dross, and allow the remaining, pure metal to take a new and perfect shape in the mold.

A good refiner never leaves the crucible but, as the above verse indicates, “will sit” down by it so the dire will not become even one degree too hot and possibly harm the metal. And as soon as he skims the last bit of dross from the surface and sees his face reflected in the pure metal, he extinguishes the fire.” – Arthur Tappan Pierson

Nobody likes having the heat turned up. When you realize the storms have come once again, you are left with nothing but to run or flee from the living God.

I loved this above passage on the refiner's fire, it was the best thing to intersect my thinking the other day as it struck me that God never leaves the fire. He will sit.... those words were so powerful to me as they brought all my fears and anxious thoughts to a screeching halt.
Sometimes we just need to be reminded that He is here.

He is here.

The more I am following Jesus, the true cost of what it means to follow Him comes into clearer view. It will cost you everything. The things you hold the closest will be the first to go. It will be painful. It will be messy. It will not feel good. It will not be certain. It will feel like everything around you is crumbling.

Until you allow the truth of God's word to intersect your conclusions and you find that there is not "some strange thing happening to you."

One of my mentors always tells me, I know how to stop all these things from happening to you, Mazvita. Stop pursuing a life of the gospel. Stop wanting to give your life to fight for the kingdom. Get off the frontlines. Take a backseat. Stop fighting even though nearly everyone around you is giving in, putting down their sword... stop living for what matters.

I told this person today that I just wanted others to fight with. I've been incredibly discouraged to find the road get lonelier and lonelier. To find the ones who were once running mates, giving up, stopping, choosing another path. It's heartbreaking. To see the ones I had left trading it in. For those things that will not satisfy.

It makes for a lonely journey. Some days you want to quit. Some days you wonder if there will be others fighting with you. Some days you wonder why you're seeing it differently.There is no life apart from Christ and He will crucify all the ways we try to find life apart from Him.

We all know nothing worth fighting for comes easy but living it is a different reality. In the face of God continually burning away the fields of thorns so there can be fruit, it is most critical that we lay our feelings aside and trust what we know of His character.

That we have favor with the Lord. That He is for us. Always. That He is faithful. These are the rich promises we must cling to in the face of adversity. Or else our faith is in vain. For we having a living hope. A living hope in Christ Jesus, that anchors us in the midst of the most violent of storms.

That sometimes God brings the storms in our lives so we can experience His grace and be freed of all the ways we try to make ourselves right with Him and find approval and worth from others.

Just like Jonah. God sent the storm in Jonah's life so he would experience the grace of God. So he would experience the incredible relentless pursuit of the God we love to run from.

Jonah's problem was not fear of failure. He was not afraid of going to preach to the Ninevites.

His issue was self-righteousness. He feared success more than anything, His anger and true problem with God is revealed in chapter 3 of Jonah, where God brings mercy to the Ninevites... Jonah says... I knew it, I knew you would do this... to people who do not deserve it... Lord... so that is why I did not want to come.

Yet, the storm comes and sets Jonah free from himself.

God sends the storms until he has our hearts.

God sends the storms to save us from ourselves.

God sends the storms and the earthquakes to loosen chains.

And to bring us back to Himself.

Where true life is found.

These [trials] have come [why] so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
1 Peter 1:6-8