Malachi 3:3

**Edited 12/16/08

I received the below article in an email and I am uncertain of its origin, but I found it encouraging. I am finding myself more and more thanking my Father for loving me enough to send me through the fire. He disciplines and refines those He loves. Amazing. Honestly, I have felt very much in the heat of the fire lately. I know others who are close to me are in the fire as well. What a comfort and a reassurance it is to know it is because my Creator wants me to be more like Him.

Malachi 3:3 says: 'He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.' This
verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement
meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining Silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: 'He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.'

She asked the silversmith if it was true that, He had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that yes, He not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the
entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the
flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, 'How do you know when the silver is fully refined?' He smiled at her and answered, 'Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it.'

If today you are feeling the heat of the fire , remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.