Key Verse: Proverbs 17:3 

“The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the hearts.” 

There are only a few things that have been deemed valuable in the past that still are today. Precious metals as a group are one of those things. For thousands of years people have been obsessed with bronze, silver, and gold. People have killed others, started wars, and betrayed their own family for gold. Today, gold is still extremely valuable, today just like thousands of years ago people still refine gold. They want to make sure it is as pure as possible. Today the techniques for refining gold have gotten very complex, but in the old days, one would take gold and place it in a melting pot and melt the gold. Once it was melted all the impurities in the gold such as other metals would rise to the surface where someone who remove all the impurities with a pair of tongs. This is the refinery process that Solomon is speaking about it in Proverbs 17:3. 

God too, runs a refinery business. God is in the business of testing our hearts. He will take our heart throw it in the fire and begin to remove all the impurities from our life. This is something that we as Christians should desire. We should long for God to take us and clean us up. This is something we should pray for, and something that we should thank God for when He does it. The reason He does this is to make us more and more like Jesus, and oh that is the desire of my heart! To be more like my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Would you join me in praying that God would refine us this week? I hope that you will!