The Crucible Is for Silver

Proverbs 17:3 reads, “The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts.”

A lot has changed in the last two months. What I said most often when all this started was, “This is weird.” Now I feel, and perhaps you do too, like I can hardly remember what normal was like. So much has changed: our schedules, how we work, where we go or don’t go, how we communicate, and more.

But a few things haven’t changed. Actually, a lot of things haven’t changed, but I want to focus on one: my heart. The commitments, beliefs, and desires of my heart have not changed. Rather, all the other changes around me have exposed my heart anew.

At Harvest USA, we often speak of ourselves in terms of a fruit-bearing tree, based on a metaphor given to us in the Bible. As Jesus said in Matthew 12:34, “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” Just like a tree bears fruit, what we do springs from deep inside us, from within our hearts.

However, what’s going on outside of us also affects us. The Bible uses other word pictures to help us think about this, like the crucible in Proverbs 17:3. In this example, heat is applied to the crucible, which contains a substance like metal that will melt when heated. Then the impurities begin to surface, and the metal is refined by the heat. The same process applies to us. A change in our circumstances reveals the impurities that have really been in our hearts all along. Significantly, the goal is not just exposure, but purification.

I don’t know about you, but the sudden and significant changes in my circumstances have exposed my heart. I’ve had new and unexpected opportunities for impatience, for anger, for anxiety; new occasions for short-tempered communications; new pangs of yearnings I had long suppressed; new risings of familiar cravings.

The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts. Your current situation is his doing. Regardless of how we might describe what has been happening these past weeks and months, it is true to say the Lord is testing our hearts.

So what should we do? Two things.

First, ask for wisdom. In the beginning of the book of James, God promises that when you are in a time of trial or testing, when circumstances are exposing your heart, he will freely give wisdom if you ask for it. This means saying, “Lord, as so much around me has changed, my heart is visible in new ways. Please give me the wisdom to see it. Open my eyes to my deepest fears, my deepest desires. Help me see in these testing circumstances what tendencies of my heart are rising to the surface.” He will answer that prayer.

And second, be willing to change. This means taking whatever God is showing you about your heart and applying the gospel to it. This means meditating on your union with the crucified and risen Jesus Christ and applying that to what you see in your heart: applying his mercy, applying his forgiveness, applying new life.

What does new life look like? Your patterns and routines have already been thrown into upheaval. So what better time than this to create brand-new patterns for yourself, patterns that express new life in Christ in direct response to what God is exposing in you right now?

Don’t miss this. That he would use difficult circumstances to graciously give you significant insight into yourself, and to change you into the image of Jesus, is an incredible gift. But soon this moment will pass. Perhaps it is already letting up for you. Take advantage of it now. In Christ, it can only be a good thing.