Do you know how silver is refined? The Bible talks about God as our refiner and refining us as silver (
Malachi 3:3), but what does that mean exactly??

Thankfully the First Year Missionary program I am involved in enables me to soak up a lot of other people's knowledge, and as is the case a few weeks ago, I was able to learn what it means exactly to be refined as silver. Since then, God has enabled me to also get my hands on some other information (
click here for that website) that explains what a refiner of sliver (a.k.a. a silversmith) does as well...here is what I've found!

The process of refining silver is a very meticulous and precise art. A silversmith begins by taking the article of silver and holding it over a fire to allow the silver to heat up. For the purest silver, the metal MUST be held in the middle of the fire where the flames are the hottest. This is where the meticulous nature of refinement comes in. The silversmith has to hold the silver the entire time it is being heated up/refined. If the silversmith takes his eyes off of the silver, even for a second, the silver could be destroyed!

Doesn't this show the love of God? He wants to cleanse us, He wants to purify us, but first He must hold us over the hottest part of the flame, yet He won't go anywhere. He watches over us carefully, and only leaves us in the flames until all of our impurities are burned away. He is holding us there...watching us...making sure we are being taken care of! How great is our God?!

But here is the best part of the process of refinement (and I must thank my teammate Daniel for this piece of knowledge). Do you know how a silversmith can tell when silver is perfectly refined? He only has to hold it in front of his face to see his image in it.

God refines us so that when He looks upon us, He sees Himself! He sees His glory, His holiness, His purity...all the goodness in Himself He can now see in us! This idea of God as our refiner and us as His silver blows me away! How awesome is our God? In all honestly, God never makes mistakes in His word! There was a perfect reason God used the analogy between a silversmith and silver to help us understand the way God purifies His children.