While he was going through a lot of problems, Job said, ‘But God knows the way that I take,and when he has tested me, I will come out like gold.’ Gold is hidden deep in the earth, and it takes hours of hard work removing tons of dirt to bring it to the surface. But God sees the gold in each of us. He sees our potential, no matter how much dirt is layered on top of it. He’ll keep digging to bring our gold to the surface. We might feel ashamed of the dirt, and want God to stop digging. But the end result is worth it. Once gold has been dug out of the earth, it has to be refined. It’s melted down under incredibly hot temperatures to separate it from the impurities. Job must have felt like he was in that fire, and each time a new disaster struck him and his family, it could have felt like the temperature was being increased. But he knew that God’s testing would ensure that he would come out as pure gold. We don’t like God’s testing and we don’t always want the impurities to be removed because we’ve grown used to them. We don’t want to be in the fire because it can hurt. We don’t want tough times to come, we pray against them. But the Bible tells us: ‘When you have many kinds of troubles, you should be full of joy, because you know that these troubles test your faith, and this will give you patience’ (James 1:2-3 NCV). When we’re in the fire, we need to remember the end result. We need to rejoice in the fact that God’s removing our impurities and making us more like Him. 

What Now?

Read Zechariah 13:9. Then spend some time thanking God for working to find and purify the gold in you.