Morning Manna | Proverbs 17:3 | The LORD Trieth the Hearts

As I read this verse I imagined Solomon in the smith's shop watching him melt down gold and silver for one of his many projects. Being the wisest man that ever lived, his mind drifted from the scene before him and the Holy Ghost began to teach him a lesson. Suddenly he wasn't just overseeing his pet project, but the smith had become a living example of our Lord and Solomon's heart was the work of the smith's hand.

A Smith never wakes up in the morning and decides to melt down some metal throw it on the ground and see what becomes of it. He always starts with a purpose, the material is too costly and the time it takes is too precious not to have an end goal in mind. So, ever before he lights the coals or prepares the instruments he has a purpose for what he is doing. So it is with our Lord, long before he lights the coals for the "trial of our faith," or long before he places us in his crucible he has a purpose. As his children, we are too costly a material to be left to ourselves. The smith knows what temperature to fire the coals to, depending upon what type of piece he is making and our Lord knows exactly how to heat us, form us, and purify us depending upon the image we will be made into. 

Then the furnace has at least two purposes, first of all for purification. As Solomon watched the silver being melted down, I wondered if he was taken back by the amount of dross hidden in the silver lump. I know in my own heart I have been amazed at what trials and afflictions have revealed about myself. By my evaluation, I thought I was purified, yet another trip to God's furnace proved that there was still dross in my heart. They say that silver and Gold are useless until the dross is removed. It won't hold its shape and will crack under pressure, whereas purified silver and gold are malible and bend instead of breaking. Purified Gold and silver will shine in the light and can be polished to a mirror finish. So our Lord purifies our hearts with the trials and afflictions of life, he can even use things like praise to reveal our true natures [Proverbs 27:21]. At the end of the day, the Lord is the only one who knows our hearts and exactly how much more we need to be purified. He will not stop this process of purification until we hold a mirror image of our Lord until we bend in the pressing situations of life, and until we refract the light of the savior to everyone around us.

Then the second purpose of the furnace is to make us Pourable. A cold piece of metal does not take to the mold. Chipping and carving away at it can never produce a perfect representation of the mold. So the metal is placed into the fire to be brought to a liquid state. Having been heated multiple times over and having the dross removed we are ready to be poured into the mold of the Smith's choice. Our hearts do not take to God's will when they are cold and hard, so God uses whatever means necessary to soften our hearts and once our cold hard hearts have been melted by the furnace of trail, made hot by the wind of his Love, then our lives begin to be poured into the mold of Jesus Christ. No man or woman can live the Christ life with a cold heart, it is impossible. How can we love others as he did? How can we give beyond our means as he did? How can we say "To live is Christ and to die is Gain? Unless our hearts have been purified and poured out? It was Paul, from a prison cell, who said "To live is Christ and to die is Gain." He also said, "Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all." This comes from a heart purified and softened by many trips to the furnace of God's providential trials. So take courage tried believer, You will come forth in his image and all of this affliction will result in "Praise and honor and glory." [1 Peter 1:7] "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 praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:"