Smelting- Furnace?

It often happens this way, I read something in my daily Bible reading and start wondering, “What does that mean?” Yesterday I read, “The Lord took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt...” The phrase “iron-smelting”caught my attention so I did a little research and found it used several times in connection with Israel being the Lord's treasured possession. I found in Isiah 48:10 “See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.”

The purpose of smelting is to remove dross from the metal by putting it into a furnace that has been strongly heated. The purpose I see in the “furnace of affliction” in my life is so that I can be purged, purified, and refined. This doesn't really sound like something I would choose to participate in. In fact the only why anyone would want to go through this is if they really trusted God. So perhaps another thing the “iron-smelting” process exposes is what I am trusting in.

Since iron-smelting furnaces was what caught my attention yesterday you might think I had a day of intense testing but I didn't. What I had was a day of slight frustration just enough to make me irritable and uncomfortable. So how did I handle it? First, I found myself wanting to eat something. I wasn't hungry I just wanted to dull the feeling of discomfort. Next, I wanted to grumble and complain. I simply wanted to give vent to my irritability. Sometimes I think can see God using the obvious afflictions in my live to purify me easier than I can see Him using the daily discomforts.

My son was a Calvin and Hobbs fan. Calvin made a “transmogrifier” out of a collection of boxes. Calvin would enter the transmogrifier (by crawling under a box) and emerge as a tiger or toad or a duplicate of himself. Sometimes I wish I could be transformed by just crawling into a transmogrifier. What I find instead is that God is calling me to trust Him to purge, purify and refine me daily as I turn to Him for help in not only the afflictions of life but also the irritations of life.

Lord Jesus, please help me be patient in affliction even when the affliction is just a daily inconvenience. Help me cooperate with what You are doing in my life by humbly coming to You in prayer instead of seeking my comfort in other things. You word teaches me that You want to humble and to test me so that in the end it might go well with me yet my flesh doesn't want to be humbled. Thank you for Your promise that if I ask anything according to Your will I have the assurance that I will receive what I'm asking for.