Monday Mentionings: Addition by Subtraction - Proverbs 25:4-5

Don’t you just enjoy it when life delivers good days? The kind where you look forward to the next. Sunday was one of those days. I continue to revel in the fact that Aubrey and I have a child, a son! Sunday was the first day that we were able to show him off to the church family, on a Sunday, which means it was the first day he was able to hear his daddy preach! This, along with our fellowship, started out my day on a good note. Then, hosting the 5th Sunday Rally was a great uplift. It was great to be “fed” by hearing a lesson from Carroll. He encouraged and challenged us to “play hurt”. It is easy for Christians to want to give up, but we must continue to go back out there and “keep playing”.

Adding by subtracting initially can look like it doesn’t go together, but when it comes to our faith it makes sense. Yesterday, we looked at this principle and applied this principle to our faith. Silver must be melted, and remain at that temperature, to bring the impurities to the surface. After the impurities are brought to the surface, they are then skimmed off until no more impurities are left. Our faith must also go through constant heat in order to have our impurities come to the surface, and then have the impurities skimmed off until there are no more left. Here are some additional applications from the lesson to choose from to use…

1. Have you had the heat turned up in your life lately? Problems at work, with family, with finances, with self-esteem? How did you respond in those moments? Did it cause you to turn to God or did it cause you to be independent of His help? May you look to Him the next time life hands you something “hot” and use it to be refined by having your figurative impurities come to the surface so that they can be skimmed off to make you more pure and Christlike. A scripture of encouragement, Acts 14:22 – you will go through many hardships to enter into the kingdom of heaven (paraphrased).
2. It is no fun to carry something heavy without a reason. During one season of a weight loss reality show, the contestants had to carry the amount of weight they had lost as far as they could carry it. Some had lost around 100 lbs. They never thought about carrying that weight when it was attached to their bodies, but when they had lost it, and now had to carry it outside of their bodies, it really weighed them down. The Hebrew writer challenges us to get rid of anything that “entangles” us or “clings to” us. Like an athlete who is trying to get to the finish line as quickly, and, in a way, as easily as possible, he doesn’t need any more weight or resistance to hinder him. If you’ve got extra “weight” then get rid of it, give it to God. This will help us in our pursuit of becoming “refined and purified silver” and to have a fresh faith.
3. There is only one way the silversmith knows that the silver is free of impurities – he can see his own reflection. As you understand that any flecks of slag left in our faith causes us to be “impure”, may we appreciate the need to be “in the heat” in order to have the impurities come to the surface and skim them off so that the reflection of God may be seen in us – that the world may see Jesus, the “refiner and purifier” of our faith (Malachi 3:3), in us! Our faith is added to by subtracting impurities.

May God bless you with an awesome week, filled with many opportunities to reflect Jesus to others!

Being Refined ~