But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap.  Malachi 3:2

Most of us would own up to having parts of ourselves that are messy.  The most honest among us would admit to being wrecks, apart from the grace of God. Our inclination is to hide our flaws and failures, just like Adam and Eve did back in the Garden of Eden. Scripture says that God sees the conduct of all people (Jeremiah 32:19) and because of His love (that makes no human sense), He has compassion on us (Psalm 103:8). The God of the Bible, rather than demanding that we reach up to Him, reached down to us in love, through the gift of Jesus.  Moreover, He continues to reach down, to refine us and heal us.

“Our God,” says Jen Rosner, “is not a God who leaves us alone and lets us be just how we are. He is a God who changes us, and this change can only come about through an awakening to the parts of our lives that are in desperate need of reordering. It is this reordering, this opening of ourselves to the refining hand of God, that will indeed draw us nearer to God and closer to the people we were made to be.[1]

Have you experienced this reordering in your life? Follower of Jesus, this is our confidence: when we choose to say yes to the refining circumstances that God allows into our lives, we find Him, closer than we ever knew, and lovingly working wholeness in us that we never knew possible (Philippians 2:13).

 

Resource reading: Hebrews 12:4-12

[1] Rosner, J. (2021, November 25). He Won’t Leave Us Alone. ChristianityToday.com. Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2021/gospel-of-advent-devotional/advent-devotional-he-wont-leave-us-alone.html?utm_source=Women%2BLeaders%2BNewsletter&utm_medium=
Newsletter&utm_term=29247&utm_content=7740&utm_campaign=email.