Is the sword of the spirit refined by fire?

A young mother stood up in church and asked for prayer.

She explained that she had been suffering with pain in her arm, just months away from graduating college; she faced a diagnosis that could not only force her to drop out of school, but permanently disable her. As she asked for prayer to fight off her circumstances, my mind began to drift to my own struggles. The Lord seemed to answer my questions, by painting this picture deep in my spirit.

What if the sword could speak? Would he cry out to his master, “No, don’t put me in the fire! I won’t go. It hurts.”?

Yet, it is only the fire that brings cold steal to a place where it can be molded into a useful tool in the hand of its master.

As I stand in the fire, and the hammer of life beats my heart into submission to accept what I cannot change, will I refuse to allow the fire to mold it?

Would not the real tragedy to be put in a fire, to be brought to a place beyond endurance, and come out unchanged?

If we want to be refined, changed, and made into the image of Christ, we must trust that our lives are in the hands of the Master, who loves us, and wants us to fully become what he has designed.


Duplicate post to A Mother's Life