“I wanna be tried by fire. Purified. You take whatever You desire. Lord here’s my life.” ~Maverick City
If you’re even vaguely familiar with this song, you’re probably singing the melody to the rest of it right now, (or humming, for those of my friends who don’t know the words but choose to sing along anyway, lol).
How often do we truly pay attention to the worship songs we are singing? I mean we may be feeling the music and so engulfed in our worship to the Father (which we should be) that we don’t even always consider the weight of our words. Often times, they are dangerous prayers or just an invitation notice we send to the Lord that we are welcoming a trial.
My church sang this song during worship recently and I gotta tell ya’ll, I was really just in a true posture of worship with the Lord. Yet, it wasn’t for the reasons you may think. If I am honest, I was being thoroughly convicted by the Holy Spirit in that moment because of the season I am in currently. I realized how far from wanting to purified I really desired, thus far because, well,…the process.
Let me explain. The Holy Spirit brought back to mind a blog post I wrote back in 2018 called Unrecognizable, where I talked about being so consumed with the fire of God, which interestingly enough was my word for that year. At that time, I was smack dab in the middle of a season of extreme heart surgery, i.e. pruning, where God had cut me open to begin to deal with some of the things that had been lying dormant in my heart for some time. When the Holy Spirit brought that back to mind, I considered the words of the song I was singing and it caused me to weep even more because I knew I finally meant the words I was singing deep in my soul. I wanted God to refine me and in order for Him to do that, it required fire–fire to burn up everything in me that was hindering me from drawing closer to Him and burning for only Him (as the song says).
Merriam Webster Dictionary defines the word refine as “to become pure or perfected; to improve or perfect by pruning or polishing”.That word refiner, in the Hebrew, means “to test (and prove), smelt, melt, purge away, try.” The only way to purge or purify a metal, particularly gold or silver, is to melt it by fire. This is what exposes all of the impurities, known as dross, which rise to the top, that the Refiner, can then skim off. What is left is a piece that is in its purest form.
Our God is the Master Refiner. He knows how to test us in such a way, often through trials, that expose and bring to the surface the impurities lying ever so discreetly in the crevices of our life and hearts. My desire to be refined is because I want to be pure–not just in actions, in my words or in my outside appearance, but from the inside out. I desire to be pure in my soul (my heart, mind and will.). I don’t want to just live for Jesus, I want to be utterly consumed by Jesus so that there’s nothing left of Charlene when people see me. Instead, they should see Christ, the hope of glory.
I want to be refined so that I can be perfected in different areas in my life that I have jacked up. I want to be refined because I truly just want to delight myself in the Lord, not so He can give me the desires of my heart, but because I just want Him.
I don’t have to be afraid in what I am asking because I know, and am getting to know even more, the One who is doing the refining. I take consolation in the fact He knows just how much to turn up the heat to bring those impurities up, but not enough to harm me. He loves me more than I could ever love myself. He cares for me in a way that no one else can ever has or ever will. He is more committed to me being perfected into the character of His Son Jesus than anyone that will ever walk the planet could ever be, including me. He is trustworthy and He is safe.
The next time you hear this song, I challenge you to ask yourself: Do I really understand what I am singing and do I really mean what I am singing?
He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross. He will purify the Levites, refining them like gold and silver, so that they may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the Lord.” ~Malachi 3:3, NLT
I want the sacrifice of myself to be acceptable to the Lord. What about you?
But before you go…
***Tomorrow is not promised. Today is all we have. If you are reading this and haven’t accepted Jesus Christ as Your Lord and Savior, would you consider doing so right now? Jesus died so He could have a personal relationship with you and so that one day, when you leave this earth, you can spend eternity with Him. You can say a prayer similar to this:
Dear God, in the name of Jesus, I acknowledge that I am a sinner and that I cannot save myself. You showed Your great love for me, while I was in my sinful state, by sending Jesus Christ to die for me. Today, right now, I declare that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe in my heart that God raised Him from the dead. Please enter into my heart, Lord Jesus, forgive me of all of my sins, and seal me with Your Holy Spirit. I choose this day to live for You, all the days of my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
If you said this prayer (or something similar) and you truly meant it, welcome to the family of God! Angels in heaven are rejoicing with you on the best decision you will ever make in life, and so am I! Please send me an email (ladyinwaiting222@gmail.com) or respond to this post so I can celebrate with you!
If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.” Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him. For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” ~Romans 10:9-13, NLT
What are you waiting for? BE God’s best RIGHT now, while waiting!
Genesis 2:22, NLT
Scripture references: The Holy Bible (NLT)
References: Blueletterbible.org, Merriam Webster Dictionary
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Lady In Waiting 222 
This was one of the most “natural”teachings I’ve heard (It felt good). Thanks sister in Christ and please keep up the good work🙏. Oh and I subbed to ur YT channel.
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Hi Mackenzie! Thank you so much for your kind words of encouragement and for reading! God bless you.
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