ForgottenWoman

But if God will use it…

I was in my early twenties when I first began singing the song, The Refiner’s Fire by Steve Green. At that point, I had suffered loss in many areas of my life, and I truly wanted all of it to be used to refine who I was/am and as often as I sang the song, I could never get through it without tears.

In case you aren’t familiar:

There burns a fire with sacred heat
White-hot with holy flame
And all who dare pass through its blaze
Will not emerge the same
Some as bronze and some as silver
Some as gold, then with great skill
All are hammered by their sufferings on the anvil of His will

[Chorus]
The Refiner’s fire
Has now become my sole desire
Purged and cleansed and purified
That the Lord be glorified
He is consuming my soul
Refining me, making me whole
No matter what I may lose
I choose the Refiner’s fire

[Verse 2]
I’m learning now to trust His touch
To crave the fire’s embrace
For though my past with sin was etched
His mercies did erase
Each time His purging cleanses deeper
I’m not sure that I’ll survive
Yet the strength in growing weaker keeps my hungry soul alive

The Refiner’s fire
Has now become my sole desire
Purged and cleansed and purified
That the Lord be glorified
He is consuming my soul
Refining me, making me whole
No matter what I may lose
I choose the Refiner’s fire

I’m pretty sure God heard every single time I sang the song, and He must have smiled as He said, “Ok child, hang on!” I also think I must have a lot to refine, and I’m stuck on silver and not getting to the ‘purified as gold’ as easily as others of His children, because I’m now in my 60s and writing and speaking about what I’m still learning, walking through various “fires” in this life.

Just this morning, as I prepared for the day and was praying over the things God is currently doing in my heart and life, I recognized that I am still so needy – still so dependent on Him – still learning how to do this grace walk with Him!

Some of you know that I have just written and published my first book and as I wrote, edited, edited some more and prayed over this process; I just kept thinking that it would be amazing if God would take this traumatic story that is a part of the life of my family and use it in hundreds of other’s lives! You know, that refining fire producing gold in others and all of the lessons learned reaching beyond just my life!

That is what the ripple effect of God’s work in our lives will look like if we transparently share; openly proclaim His mighty works in our lives! It’s funny, just this past week, one of my daughters surprised me by paying for my entire house to be pressure-washed by a professional (I usually try to do it myself). The job was done incredibly! I don’t think my home and porches have been so clean in 20 years! However, when I went outside after dark, I realized that the electrical outlets on the porches had been waterlogged to the point that none of my outdoor lights were working. I didn’t want to tell my daughter, so I googled. Yes, apparently, this can happen sometimes when high-pressure water is used. The suggestions were beyond my skill level, so I called a son who has done some electrical work. He ordered me not to try to fix it myself and that he would come over in a few days and work on it.

Well, just a couple of days later, I was working around the house and praying over practical things that I needed to take care of. (Yes, one of the things that I’ve learned over the years is that nothing is too insignificant to take to our Father!) As I stepped out onto the porch, I breathed a quick prayer. “Lord, I’m going to hit the reset button on this outlet one more time. Would you please allow it to work? Would you please turn all of these lights back on?” To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much but had just a tiny bit of hope. After all, I’d been hitting that reset button for several days to no avail. I reached down, pushed the button, and it didn’t pop back out! So, I thought, “OK… now Lord, I’m going to walk around the side of the porch – please let the lights be on.” Y’all, they were all on! You better believe I thanked the Lord for what I knew He had done. See, not only had the pressure washing soaked everything, it had not stopped raining for days – I didn’t see how it could have possibly dried out on its own. But it had!

I kept thinking – “Proclaim His mighty works!” So, I texted the two sons whom I had spoken to about the problem and let them know about my prayer and that the outlets were working. I then called a couple of my friends whom I knew would rejoice with me.

What is God doing in your life today? What has He done recently that you haven’t told anyone about? He is always at work in the lives of His children. Do we want His refining fire to burn off the dross and make us more like Him? I sure do. And I’m not going to stop sharing with you what He is doing!

Now, if you haven’t seen or gotten my new book yet, I hope you will! https://a.co/d/5C5yHsM

I am praying for the sale of 30 more books this week. Yes, I’m a goal setter, but I am depending on God and my family, and friends to help me get the word out.

I pray that God will use your and my life to point others to Him today!