ThoughtSeeds

Throughout the Bible, we find references to God as a Refiner, to the Refiner's fire, and the refining process. What does He mean by that? In Malachi 3, we see the prophecy of the coming of the Messiah, and He is called THE refiner's fire. Jesus was and is that promised deliverer -- the Messiah. Who did He first do refining work on? His ministry team -- those 12 men He chose to work and teach alongside Him. He took unrefined, undesirable-for-their-positions men and refined them into some of the greatest preachers the world has ever seen.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/refine
https://www.mgsrefining.com/blog/2014/02/11/induction-heating-and-precious-metal-refining/#:~:text=But%20when%20it%20comes%20to,we%20use%20an%20induction%20furnace
https://www.joshwrightpiano.com/blog/fullers-soap4063934

In the beginning of the twentieth century, Kate Barclay Wilkinson wrote out six powerful stanzas of a poem that would become her only hymn, which wasn't published until 1925, only three years before her death. Drawing from multiple Scriptures that refer to the mind of Christ, but primarily Philippians 2:5, Kate Wilkinson builds a strong foundation with each stanza. "May the mind of Christ my Savior live in me from day to day; By His love and power controlling all I do and say."

We all mess up, and usually on a continual basis. The enemy would love to see us covered in shame and guilt, paralyzed and unable to live freely in Christ. God doesn't work that way, though. He says in our weakness, His power is perfected. Instead of hiding away in self-condemnation when we mess up, God says to come to Him and confess our sin. He says He is slow to anger, and full of gracious forgiveness and compassionate mercy.

In Romans 7:19, the Apostle Paul says "For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing." We all have good intentions -- good things we want to do. We often fall short of those good intentions, though, and no amount of trying to make it up is enough. We fall short of God's glory. It's through Jesus Christ that we are justified by His grace. When we allow Him to be our strength when we are weak, we glorify Him. Let Jesus give you the strength to do the "good that you would do."

130 years ago, Albert B. Simpson wrote and published the hymn, "Yesterday, Today, Forever." The message remains the same today, just like Jesus Christ Himself. "All may change, but Jesus never! Glory to His Name!"

In life, there are stages we all must pass through that we could call seasons. We all have to be born, we all have to be babies, and then children. If we're granted long life, we have to grow old, and at some point, we all walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Those are seasons of life. Other things are like seasons in our lives, too. Circumstances that catch us by surprise -- good or bad, relationships ending or new ones beginning. Through each and every step of every single season, God is with us. He says that He's walking beside us, behind us, in front of us, and above and below us. If we walk through hell, He's there. If we go to the bottom of the sea, He's there. He formed and fashioned us from the very beginning, and He is intimately familiar with everything about us. We are precious to Him, and though seasons change, He does not.

God says that He set the stars in the heavens as signs for our seasons, and as long as the earth remains, the seasons will continue to change, without ceasing. We often look at the coming of spring after winter as a testament of God's faithfulness, and that is true. It is. What is also true is that the change from fall to winter is just as much a testament of His faithfulness! Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever, and as the seasons changing -- every one of them -- speak that truth to us, year after year.

Fanny Crosby, blinded at only 6 weeks old, wrote between 8,000 and 9,000 hymns in her lifetime, and when asked if she'd written any specifically about her own conversion experience, began to sing this one. Do you, like the song says, love to proclaim that you've been redeemed? Christ has bought us with the price of His own blood, and in so doing, He offers us the chance and ability to become His very own child forever.

As children of the God of heaven, we are already redeemed from hell. God still offers us redemption, however, from other areas of life. Whether you need to be ransomed from the grip of something that draws your attention away from Him, or you need release from burdens, grief, despair, or depression, ask Him to redeem you. He is your Father, and He promises to redeem you from what is too strong for you.

Redemption. What does it mean to you? The roots of the word mean "to buy back, release, ransom." What do we need to "bought back" from? What kind of ransom is involved with every single person who has ever lived? Why would YOU need to be redeemed?