Remove the Dross

Proverbs 25:4  "Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the refiner." 

Throughout the Bible God refers to human beings in many different ways.  One of the ways is as vessels of silver.  We are all precious in the sight of the Lord, but He is seeking pure vessels, not vessels mixed with the dross.  

Now dross can be anything that doesn't glorify God, not necessarily sin alone.  There are plenty of things we do in life that aren't "technically" sin, but they are a waste of our precious time, or just foolishness.  God wants to purify us of all those things.

The process of purifying silver and gold is interesting, and significant.  As you can see in the image above, the material is placed into the hottest part of the fire, and is melted.  Once melted, all the impurities begin to rise to the surface, and the silversmith carefully removes them.  

This is a delicate process, because certain things can go wrong.  Look at Malachi 3:3: 

“He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."

Navajo Silversmith

A silversmith must be constantly vigilant of the silver he is refining.  He can't just leave it, go get a cup of coffee, have a snack, or whatever.  He can't take his eyes off of the silver for a single minute.  This is because if the silver heats up too much, it can overheat and be destroyed, making all the work in vain.  

You can probably see the spiritual imagery by now.  God is the silversmith, and He watches over us constantly, never leaving us (Hebrews 13:5).  However, in order to purify us, He still must allow us to sit in the fire.  Sometimes until we feel like we can't take it anymore.  Yet He will never let us stay too long, He always pulls us out at the right moment, although sometimes it is the very last moment (1 Cor. 10:13).  

When we are in the fire is when our real being comes out.  You can act like an angel when everything is going your way, it is quite easy to fool people.  But once trouble hits is when people tend to abandon God, friends, and all right and good decisions.  

It is a known statistic that in an crisis 99% of humanity will run from it, while 1% run toward it.  Just as when the whole army of Israel cowered in front of Goliath, while the Bible says that David ran to the battle line to face him (1 Sam. 17:48).

When God allows you to go through the fire, don't complain, blame God for injustice, decide He must not exist, and all the other things most Christians do today.  Instead, thank Him, and realize that He is trying to purify you so you can come out a lot more shiny and valuable on the other end.