Testing of the Heart

This morning I felt led to read through Proverbs, chapter 17.  Any one of those chapters are great to read, in little one thought bites, as every couple of lines are worth thinking about.  This morning my highlighted text grabbed my attention, and it was Proverbs 17:3 NIV:  "The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the heart."

This always sounds good when I read it, but the reality of what it means should be both encouraging and somewhat frightening (at least it is to me).  First the encouragement is that we are talking about things of significant value!  Silver and Gold have been prized by pretty much every society since they were found!  They made up the basis for individual wealth, and the financial foundations of many nations.  The processes described (crucible and furnace) are methods of purifying the metals to increase the value of the metal.  In both cases, as you melt the metal the impurities come to the surface, so that they can be removed.  The purer the metal the higher the value of each bit!  You only do this process if you are desirous of purity, and increasing the value!  You only do this process if you want to burn away, or take away the impurities.

So, the encouragement is that the Lord considers our hearts valuable, and is desirous of helping us to remove the dross (impurities) fro our lives.  He thinks we are worth the effort, and knows our true value and wants to reveal that true value to the all the world!  We do not want to lose site of that fact!  It is about our value and His desire for our purity of heart.

So obviously the scary part is the testing and revealing what dross there is in our lives!  I don't think the Lord tests us for His sake, but rather tests us for our sake.  I find that I am generally aware of my faults, but often times I find that I am unaware of certain things, completely blind to characteristics or ways of thinking that the Lord would like to remove.  I find that heat in the form of stress relating to work, health, home-life, or finances will cause things to come to the surface in my life (like the Dross in the crucible) and thus I am able to see what there is, even if it was previously hidden from my knowledge or view.  It is in the recognition of this stuff that we have the opportunity to repent and change.  Repentance is like removing the dross from the silver.

It is interesting, if you heat up silver, which causes the dross to come to the surface, but don't remove the dross and then allow the silver to cool, the outside of the silver is marred by the dross, and is the first thing you would see when looking at the silver.  You don't see the shiny silver, but rather the mottled dross.  In the same way, I think there are times that I have endured some testing but not repented and changed.  In those cases it seems like my faults are exposed and on public view for all to see, and that is exactly true (using this analogy).  The Lord isn't about this to cause us pain or humiliation, but rather to allow us to free ourselves from those things that are damaging to our true value, our true identity.  The purification process does both, it purifies and cleanses.

Finally, as I said previously, the purification  process is really about testing for our sake.  The Lord actually wants us to be encouraged by the progress we are making.  In the school systems the youth are tested regularly, and the purpose is two-fold, to help them see there progress, and secondly to identify areas where additional instruction is required.  We should be encouraged by the progress we are making in our pursuit of the Lord!  We should be encouraged when the things that used to knock us down, now are not even speed bumps.  We should be encouraged when the Lord graduates us to the next level.  We should be encouraged that He does all of this because of our great value to Him!  He loves us, wants us to understand our true identity and our worth in His eyes!  He wants us to shine for all the world to see!

So my prayer and encouragement this morning is that I will be encouraged this day in the Lord's valuation of me!  He thinks I am worth testing!  Help me to recognize those things that need to change or be removed in my life!

Amen!