Seeing What Needs to Be Skimmed

Remove the impurities from silver, and the sterling will be ready for the silversmith. Proverbs 25:4 New Living Translation

I notice a pattern within myself. Walk a journey with God long enough and patterns become very evident. My most recent “pattern” has to do with unresolved hurts, disappointments, and thoughts. Avoidance, positive thinking, and denial are not the right paths for me to take. Allowing things to stay buried in hopes that they will somehow go away or resolve themselves is self-deception at best and self-destruction at worst. As a wise Teacher, God allows me to experience the pain and consequences of choices and then reveals to me where my thinking has become skewed, truth is being blocked, and healing is being hindered.

My heart’s desire is to grow and mature in my faith. I want the changes that God can bring about in my life. The problem comes when I want to rush the process and conveniently side step issues of my heart. God will not allow the success of either one. He urges me to keep pace with Himself and remain transparent and teachable to Him. It is not always easy but indeed it is necessary.

I have certain harmful mindsets that continue to wreak havoc in my life. They stem from lies, distortions, and misperceptions that I have carried with me since childhood. They affect the way I interpret things. Painful events leave a mark on me and unless I allow God to redefine my interpretations I begin to build up a huge amount of wrong thinking that eventually affects my attitude, moods, and quality of life. For a while I can seem to do fine, and then the dam of my own making breaks and I am enveloped by the very things I thought I had kept hidden and refused to bring out in the light.

This morning I have come out of one of these experiences and God is showing me the truth of today’s verse. My heart is the silver. The impurities are the wrong mindsets. Each time I am willing to voice to Him what is really going on inside of me, it is like setting a pot of liquid silver over a fire. The heat causes the impurities to come to the surface and God graciously skims them off the top. Are there still impurities to be dealt with? Yes, but each time things become clearer, purer, and more refined. This was His way of letting me know that if I do not allow Him to take me through the skimming process, the mindsets will forever remain obstacles in my life.

Father, You are so patient with me. May I continue to learn it is always safe to confide in You. Trust in You and transparency with You are my pathways to lasting change and freedom. Amen.