Press the arrow to listen to Brian Doersksen sing “Purifiy My Heart” as you read today’s devotion about refining.

Scripture
Ezekiel, son of man, I consider the people of Israel as worthless as the leftover metal in a furnace after silver has been purified. So I am going to bring them together in Jerusalem. I will be like a metalworker who collects that metal from the furnace and melts it down. I will collect the Israelites and blow on them with my fiery anger. They will melt inside the city of Jerusalem like silver in a furnace. Then they will know that I, the LORD, have punished them in my anger. Ezekiel 22:18-22

Observation
There is no end to the lengths God will go to to bring out what is valuable in us.

He gives to us a picture of a slag heap at a metal works. What looks like garbage to most, God knows still contains traces of silver. So he combines it in a furnace and smelts out the small bit of value that is left.

It would be easy to read this passage and think that the focus is on the anger of God, when in fact there is a heavy dose of his love involved as well. He put his people through the horrific siege of Jerusalem to find out among all the people, who still desired to honour him. Jeremiah was one of those refined out of the slag heap.

Application
This gives my trials new meaning. Hardships are a sign of God’s persistent love to bring not so much the best out of me, but to get me out of the slag of lesser things. God will extract silver out of the ore, but he will also return to the slag pile and find what precious metal still remains. God loves our potential too much to leave us abandoned.

Prayer
Father, don’t let the potential in me go unrealized. Use the trace elements in my life for your glory. Amen.