Through the Fire

"Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." 1 Corinthians 3:13

Have you ever experienced a time in your life when it felt like you were being tried?

A time when every event during the day seemed like a test, a challenge? I'm sure most of you have....most people do, at one point or another. It's really quite normal and expected, especially if you are a follower of Jesus Christ.

Sometimes....it can be hard. You can almost feel the chastening of the Lord's fire as it dissolves each work, making known what each was made of. Each thought and intention, opened and dissected to reveal what was truly in the heart. "Every man's work shall be made manifest..."

Sometimes, this can be humiliating as well as painful. Many an instance, we don't want our Creator to see what's truly in our hearts. We know something's wrong, thus, we are ashamed and guilt-ridden. Many times, there is sin which is blatantly obvious to us, and it's no mystery or enigma to try and figure out what we're doing wrong.  It's spelled out in red letter, right there in front of our noses.

There's no hiding from reality.

Sometimes, though, the sin is not so obvious to us; and we may not even realize that we are committing it. This can be difficult to identify without YHWH coming in and removing the scales from our eyes. We may continue on for weeks, months, years even, thinking we are without a particular sin, and all the while, knee-deep in it.

Personally, I have been seeing more and more examples of this within my own life.

Recently, we had a friend's children over to stay with us while she and her husband were out of town for a family emergency. This was an experience I will not soon forget.

Let me make this known, I am certainly not perfect. That should've been obvious by now, anyway. But sometimes I think a little higher of myself than I should. I consider myself "too good" to do a particular sin, but guess who manages to always keep falling down again and again into the same wrong-doing?

Yep. That's right. Little ol' me. Miss "thought-she-was-way-more-patient-than-she-really-is."

Frankly, I never knew I could be such a nasty jerk! I always thought I was a pretty patient soul, patient enough, at least, but NEVER overly impatient and hasty to lash out. I guess wrong. WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.

I think God personally peeled the scales from my eyes over this last weekend, chiding and reminding me of my sinful nature which I'd seemingly forgotten about temporarily. I think He was trying to show me once again about how imperfect I am on my own, without Him, and about how desperately I need His divine help to drag myself out of the morass of my sin. Actually, I could never drag myself out. He has to do the rescuing, not me. I can't rescue anybody. That's why He came to earth, to begin with. To rescue the souls of those He created. I am so thankful for His precious sacrifice....it would be a scary, scary world and horrific eternity, without it.

So...back to the topic of works being tried. Through the experiences the Lord let me go through this past weekend, I think He really did "try my works" and my heart. He showed me how impatient I have let myself become, and how I need to repent of this impatience. I gained priceless experience, knowledge and wisdom from this visit., and actually feel a few years older, too, haha. :) But, in a good way. It's a sobering, yet wonderful feeling to know the Lord opened your eyes to something He wanted you to see.

Even if it was a time of reproving and chastising. I am still very thankful for it and wouldn't dare think of looking back or wishing it didn't happen. (what does simply wishing do for anybody, anyway?!)

Have you been seeing God work in your life lately? How has He been pointing you to His ways and kingdom? What have you been learning lately about His will for your life?

Well, I need to be going now. Traveling out of town for the weekend for my dad's work, and need to finish preparing for the trip. :)

Hope y'all are having a very blessed summer so far!

Blessings,