What an enormous joy and privilege to serve our mighty God and King. May we never forget that salvation and sanctification are the holy work of God’s grace and have never and can never come from man. It is not what a man says or does that saves a soul but, rather, God alone. Our job is to live that disciplined life and be helpers to ourselves and others to be wholly yielded to God.

Oswald Chambers reminds us that, “One life wholly devoted to God is of more value to God than one hundred lives simply awakened by His Spirit.” Unless you are wholly a servant unto the Lord, you may become an irritating dictator instead of an indwelling disciple!

Jesus never dictates to us. Whenever our Lord talked about discipleship, He always prefaced it with an “if”, never with an emphatic “you must”. Discipleship carries an option with it…you get to choose!

Hopefully, we all will learn by God’s wisdom and Jesus’ example that we cannot “make” things happen but, rather, live the joyful, free life He has for us and let God do what He does best…rule and reign. Endure the fire—it’s producing pure gold!

Look up; forever look up! Can we say as Paul did in Philippians that:

• We have learned to be content in whatever circumstances we are in?
• We know how to get along with humble means as well as in prosperity?
• We have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry; of having abundance and suffering need?

It is plainly stated in Philippians 4:6-7, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” 

And don’t stop there. Don’t stomp your feet and complain because something hasn’t changed or you didn’t hear anything yet or get anything yet.

No…slow down. You need to let the next verse seep in. This is a promise, a contract, a portion of God’s covenant agreement from God. He cannot lie…He will do it! “And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Is this sinking in yet? While we wait for God’s response, He will give that peace of His – not ours. Our peace comes only when the answer comes, His peace exists through the whole ordeal! This peace isn’t just a “feel- good” peace. It’s a peace that guards our hearts (protects those sensitive feelings about the situation) and guards our minds (so we won’t be blasted with stinkin’ thinkin’ while we wait on God). And all of this, it says, is done in Christ Jesus. No one is going to snatch, remove, stain, destroy or steal anything guarded by Him!

We have sometimes been foolish to try to work out things with our limited wisdom and biased judgments. Let’s change and do it God’s way. Read Philippians 4:6-7 again and ask God to sink it deep into your soul. Endure the fire—it’s producing pure gold!

How great and wonderful is our God. He has given us all the tools of salvation, starting with His Son, Jesus. Being saved in that great redemption removes the death sentence that we were born into, but it doesn’t end there…you must continue to know and grow in the ways of God.

If you say you love Him but do not obey His commands-He says you’re a liar (1 John 2:4-5). If you say you love Him and yet continue to walk in darkness, you lie to yourself (1 John 1:6).

Take heart though, the Lord tells us in Philippians 1:6, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Thank you, Lord, for we have all fallen short many times, but do not give up…it is God working on you and He will have His completed, finished result! Endure the fire—it’s producing pure gold!

Often, as we look around in this world, we find no good thing (Psalm 12:1-2). Do not be dismayed. The heart of man, without God, cannot do any more than be evil. Stop crying over spilled milk, stop mourning over what someone did to you, stop lamenting over what you’ve done. You must strive to step back and get off the roller coaster mind games you get caught in.

God is over and above all this world and all that is in it. You must encourage yourself and others that God knows we don’t know! That’s why He calls to us and tells us to come to Him, for He is the Refuge, the Safety, the Quiet, and the Calm. He has all the answers. He knows how to match your schedule and requirements smoothly and how to give you strength to do the tasks at hand.

Stop saying silently or out loud that you’re too tired, too busy, trying to get it all done or can’t pay the bills, and can’t take it anymore! This is not the life God has for His saints. Pain and suffering are part of the construction of a saint but not the whole of the life. Complaints, doubts, despairs, angers, etc…these are warning signs that you are not in the fruit of the Spirit but rather the deeds of the flesh.

Keep praying, keep praising, hold your tongue, take every thought captive to Christ and you will come above all that was in your life or is in your life now. We are promised good success and a full life and abundance from our God. Keep going until you get it! Endure the fire—it’s producing pure gold!

Sometimes in our struggle with the sins that so easily beset us…the envy, anger, bitterness, the outbursts, jealousy, gossip, slander, etc., we struggle with the struggle! It’s a sticky predicament that Satan wants to happen over and over. But God has made a way out of this struggle…it is the risen life of Jesus in us. As we pray and praise, forgive and repent, seek and seek and seek…we find. And the new life He promised rises in us.

So don’t struggle any longer, it’s not your job to change your inside, that’s God’s job. For only He can do this. Your job is to worship, pray, praise, repent, go to fellowship, read the Bible and obey His directions. All the rest comes as God completes in us each new phase in His reconstruction project. So have faith, have patience and wait…with yourself and others. God’s good work in you will come to pass…He has promised you that. Endure the fire—it’s producing pure gold!

It is so encouraging to know that God knows! He knows our struggles and our weaknesses; He knows our successes and our failures. And with all that, He still loves us. We must learn from that and love one another.

We must love the husband who works too much; we must love the wife who spends too much; and we must love the child who argues too much. It is when we are in sin that we need that love the most. The love is like a light that can guide someone away from what is wrong.

Love doesn’t mean you agree with the sin or don’t address it. Love means you teach the right way, live the right way yourself and still not have anything against someone who is not doing it correctly. Now that is a tall order!

That is hard, even impossible at times. That is why we must call out to Jesus. He knows the way through it. He is the way through it. Don’t say you can’t do it. "God has not given us a spirit of fear (timidity) but of power and of love (a sound mind)." 2 Timothy 1:7

If you don’t have power, if you don’t have love, if you don’t have discipline—then ask for it. God cannot lie. He said He has given it to us. Take it…and then ask for more! Endure the fire—it’s producing pure gold!

May we always be in awe of God and in that awe have reverential honor, fear and respect for Him. It is too easy to be so caught up in the cares of the day that we slowly slip away from a right relationship with God. We end up putting God on the back burner. Stop…do not do that! If God is on your back burner, all your other burners are guaranteed to go up in smoke!

It is so easy not to pay attention to God. He doesn’t come charging at you as do bill collectors, children, or house maintenance emergencies. The pressing items do just that—press. God waits! Don’t make Him wait too much longer, though. He says He won’t turn His back on us, but He also says He will not strive with us forever. Turn to Him in all situations. Have that few moments of re-dedication to Him. Clear the slate and let Him write on it again.

In all likelihood, this scenario will happen over and over in your life. Each time though, return to Him, and in His due time, the honor, fear and respect of Him will far outweigh the dim and distant future. What a rich and wonderful life God has for His people. Beauty for ashes…what a deal! Endure the fire…it’s producing pure gold!

God is eager to bless us…yes, eager. Some will miss out on the blessings of God, though, because of their personal insistence on how “they see it.” But God has a way that is so immensely different from man.

He says that our ways are not His ways (Isaiah 55:8), and that a man chooses a path that seems right to him but the end of it is death (Proverbs 14:12). God says that eye has not seen nor ear heard of the glorious treasures that God has for us (1 Corinthians 2:9).

Why, then, are we so stubborn, so foolish to pursue what and how we think, in the face of such wondrous truth and direction from God? I, for one, am diligently seeking God to completely renovate, remodel, and reconstruct how I think and about what I think. He will do it, for He loves to give good things to His children…and I am one of His kids.

Continue, dear friends, to submit to God; fight every thought, word, and deed that does not measure up to God’s direction; maintain moral excellence, not moral excuses; and rejoice in the golden work of God, for His blessings are evermore. Endure the fire…it’s producing pure gold!

In today’s world, there is a desperate need of a message of solace and comfort. Too many are hurting deeply within their soul, and hurting people hurt people! It seems out of control sometimes and never ending, but there is a message—should we heed it.

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally brethren, whatever is pure, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.” (Philippians 3:6-8)

We read these things, but do we do these things? Just think of it – a peace, a guarding of your heart and mind, all beyond what we could ever understand! Remember, submission is the oil that makes obedience come with ease. It’s worth every bit! Endure the fire—it’s producing pure gold!

May we meditate and humbly be grateful for the gift of salvation in Jesus. Hopefully the following comments from My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers will open a new revelation for us all.

“I stand justified, not because I am sorry for my sin, not because I have repented, but because of what Jesus has done. The Spirit of God brings it with a breaking, all-over light, and I know, though I do not know how, that I am saved…we are acceptable with God not because we have obeyed, not because we have promised to give up things, but because of the death of Christ and in no other way.”

Oswald goes on to tell us that this salvation we receive brings with it an “attitude of holiness”. This attitude then leads us to “agonizing repentance” and “an amazing realization that the love of God commended itself to me…while I cared nothing about Him. The effect in me of this salvation “is obedience, and service and prayer.”

What a great God we serve! He not only tells us what to do in wisdom, but actually places in us the ability to do it. Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Endure the fire—it’s producing pure gold!