Walking through a well-known discount store today, I was drawn to their “Fall display”. Autumnal leaves and pumpkins, orange and brown gnomes and squirrels – harvest time already!!!
I was reminded that with the harvest comes sorting and sifting and sieving – getting rid of the husks and chaff to save the grain of value. Sometimes as Christians we may feel that we are ‘going through the mill’, being ground down and all our excess baggage stripped away through trials and sufferings in order to refine us to make us pure. It can be a really painful process. When we are going through it, it’s hard to see reasons and may make us question God. Words seem cheap and trite if people try to comfort and reassure us. All we can do is trust. God is working for our good. To save us.
When we come out the other end, He will be there for us. He will heal us with the salve of the Spirit to soothe and calm us. Then we will be purer, holier and more useful in His service.
‘Purify my heart,
Cleanse me from within
And make me holy.
Purify my heart,
Cleanse me from my sin,
Deep within.’ – Brian Doerksen