Faithful In The Furnace

We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Fiery Trials

When a silversmith is going through the awesome process of refining and purifying silver, he breaks the rock and places it into a crucible, a container that metal can be placed in under the circumstance of very high temperatures. The silversmith puts the crucible in a furnace and holds the silver in the fire until all impurities are removed. When the silversmith’s reflection can be seen in the silver, then the refining and purifying is complete.

God is our silversmith holding us in the fire, and the fact that He allows us to go through trials is one of the many reasons that He is so good. We all have times when we are in the crucible, times that can be so hard and can make it so easy for us to question or even blame God for what we can see with our own eyes. But He is close to the brokenhearted, and He allows us to walk through heat and pressure because He knows that if we fix our eyes on Him, we will be mature and complete, not lacking anything, a reflection of Him (Psalm 34:18; James 1:4). He promises to finish the good work that He started in us, and He promises to work all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Philippians 1:6; Romans 8:28).

With Us in the Fire

In Daniel 3, three young Hebrew men named Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego chose to not bow down to a big statue because they only bowed down to the Lord. Because of their decision to do this, the king of Babylon ordered the guards to throw these three into a fiery furnace. The young men responded to the king by saying, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (verses 17-18).

What a powerful response to the furnaces of our lives! We are called to declare in the face of a trial that our God is still who He says He is, and He will deliver us from the fire, but we are so confident in Him that even if He does not save us, we are still not going to bow down to the things of this world. This rich trust in the Lord is unshaken because God cannot be shaken.

When he heard Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s response, the king became so furious that “he ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual and commanded some of the strongest soldiers . . . to tie [the men] up . . . and throw them into the blazing furnace” (verses 19-20). But after they were thrown into the furnace, the king jumped up, amazed. He saw them walking around freely, with no injuries—and with a fourth who looked like the son of the gods. Quickly, the king called the young men to come out, and as they did, there was no sign on them that they had just walked out of a furnace. Then the king began to praise God (verses 24-28).

Even as you are walking into the fiery furnace and flames are getting seven times hotter, do not bow down to the temptation of believing that God has left you. He is with you in the fiery furnace, and you will not be burned!

A Faithful Walk

Faith is being confident “in what we hope for” and certain “about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). There will be people who see you being held in the fire, being refined to reflect who Jesus is, and they will come to praise Him because they will see His reflection in you. Jesus said that we do not understand what He is doing now, but one day we will understand (John 13:7). In Him you can set your eyes not on what is seen but, rather, on what is unseen because you know that what is seen is just temporary and what is unseen is eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18).

He has not left you. He has not forgotten you. He has not abandoned you. You are His dearest treasure, and the compassion that He has on you goes above and beyond your knowledge. God is bringing his goodness and beauty to completion in and through you for His glory, so don’t quit. Nothing is done just to be done. God has a purpose and a plan to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us “a hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11). Even when we walk through the furnace, we shall “fear no evil,” because He is here (Psalm 23:4)—and the hardships of the furnace cannot even compare to the joy that is coming (Romans 8:18). In this promise, we have the assurance that nothing will overcome us when we are walking with God. May we consider it “pure joy . . . whenever [we] face trials of many kinds, because [we] know that the testing of [our] faith produces perseverance.” So we must “let perseverance finish its work so that [we] may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2-4).