Tried By Fire

The words and music of “God’s Refining Fire” by Mac Lynch have 1 Peter 1:7 as their foundation. I don’t know what kind of trials he had in his life, but this song has always been a blessing to me. I am blessed when a song says something that can help me along the way as I try to serve the Lord. The words are as follows:

O Lord, we pray, “Thy will be done,” or “Master, here am I.”
We pray You’d do a mighty work that to the flesh we’d die.
And when the answer comes to us in form of trial and test
We fail to see Your loving hand, Refining fire is best.

Chorus
God’s refining fire. God’s refining fire.
May it purge me now and make of me what You require.
O Lord feed the fire, Your refining fire.
Now as gold and silver must be tried,
Lord, may my heart be purified.
Lord send your great refining fire.

That I may stand when You appear, abide ‘til Your return,
O place the fire perfectly that all the dross be burned.
Whether furnace of affliction Lord, or unfulfilled desire,
Bring forth a vessel pure and tried by Your refining fire.

As I write this article, my husband and I have found ourselves in the midst of a refining fire in our lives! My husband has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. This undoubtedly is the hottest fire that we have been through in nearly forty years of walking through this life together. God has been faithful not to allow us to go through this fire alone; He has promised to be with us all the way.

In 1992, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Many hundreds of God’s people were praying for us as we claimed Isaiah 43:1b-3a which says: “Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the LORD thy God.”

Those verses have helped us through other trials as well. We know that nothing comes into our lives except by the hand of God. We realize that we are only clay in the Potter’s hands, and we will trust Him to do what is best in our lives. His will and His way are always best and perfect for us. Even when the waters get deep all around us and the smoke from the fire nearly blinds our eyes, we have tried to stay focused on the Lord Jesus and His goodness and mercy to us.

Lamentations 3:22 says: “It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.” It is because of our Heavenly Father’s promises in which we trust, that the waters we find ourselves wading through dry up a bit, and also our eyes get a little clearer from the tears and smoke, so that we can become stronger in our faith and trust in God.

Through the refining fire we can have a much closer walk with our Lord. Our relationship with Christ is strengthened. He becomes more real to us as we study what He has for us in His Word. We need to let God be God and allow His Word to speak to our hearts every day and let Him work in our lives for His glory.

In this refining fire, we can find ourselves more surrendered in serving our Saviour. Our love for Him increases because of our trial. We must use every trial as a stepping stone to teach us to become better believers with stronger principles and standards to live by than ever before. Some Christians allow trials to make them bitter instead of better. It must grieve our Lord’s heart to see His servants become bitter. Don’t be bitter. It is a disease that will eat up your life. You will not be able to be used of God and you will be miserable.

It is our desire that the Lord would purge us and make us better servants for Him. It is our prayer that our hearts would be purified through this refining fire in our life at this time. 1 Peter 1:7 says: “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto the praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:”

I can’t leave you hanging about our experience in 1992. God miraculously took away the cancer! After my surgery, the doctor told us he could not find cancer in any of the tissue he removed from around the tumor nor could he find cancer in the tumor that he had aspirated cells from before surgery. Everyday I praise God for the way He worked in our lives through that trial, and I think we can say that He has definitely increased our faith to trust Him through this “refining fire!”