Wednesday—June 12 • Letting God Shape Us Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter. Isaiah 64:8
Scripture repeatedly calls us to be malleable in God’s hands; for instance, clay in the hands of a potter. Other images also support that idea. For instance, gold is extremely malleable—some say it is the most malleable of all known metals. In fact, a single ounce of gold can be hammered to create a sheet that is about 400 times thinner than a human hair, covering about 300 square feet! The Bible indicates that real men—men who seek to define themselves and their purpose biblically— will allow God to shape them.
A true man is willing to adjust his agenda when it doesn’t correspond with God’s. Anyone who is seeking God’s plan for his life must be willing to be hammered out and shaped by God. Scripture challenges us not to let the world hammer us into its mold. Instead, we are to be transformed by letting God renew our minds and change us from the inside out (see Romans 12:2). MIMBS 7 How has God been trying to shape you? How have you been cooperating or resisting His efforts? Daily Reading: 1 Kings 9:1–10:29, Acts 8:14–40, Psalm 130:1–8, Proverbs 17:2–3
Thursday —June 13 • Purified by Fire
See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. Isaiah 48:10 Silver and gold and other precious metals are purified by exposing them to intense heat. As the metal melts, the impurities rise to the surface and can be scooped away, so all that is left behind is the pure metal. That’s a picture of how God uses circumstances to purify us as well. James opened his letter to Christians by exhorting them, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds.” He explains that trials test our faith, making it pure. That enables us to persevere, so we grow into maturity (James 1:2–4). God uses the afflictions of this world to test and refine us, like a metalsmith uses
50
fire to purify metals. We all can choose how we will respond to difficulties. Will we become harder, more obstinate, more bitter, and angrier? Or will we allow the process to make us softer in God’s hands, so He can more easily mold us into the men He wants us to be? MIMBS 7 Have your difficult situations left you harder and more bitter, or softer and more easily molded by God? How? Daily Reading: 1 Kings 11:1–12:19, Acts 9:1–25, Psalm 131:1–3, Proverbs 17:4–5