Our ministry was named The Crucible's Fire after the book I wrote about the first 10 years of my daughter's life and the things the Lord taught us and about the process ... The Crucible ... He used to do the teaching. It would have been easy, and sometimes it still is, to be angry with Him over the seeming injustice and unfairness of it all. It's also easy to flip it around and think it's all punishment for how gross and sinful we really are. Neither are true.

Psalm 66 doesn't pretend hard things didn't happen. Nor does it pretend that He wasn't involved in them all. It begins praising His mighty works, inviting all to come see what He's done, but it does it with a healthy dose of truth.

The truth is God was the one playing the part of the refiner, placing the precious cargo into the burning fire of trial and discipline. He wasn't absent hoping for things to get better, he attentively engaged in our purification, leading us out to abundance and answered prayer.

Suddenly, the flood seems less ancient history and more part and parcel to the refining acts of a gracious and merciful creator actively redeeming what He started.

Refining always feels like loss when the fire is hot and dross is stripped away. All the false supports we've put in place collapse, our illusions burn off and leave the purified soul. This Psalm insists there is an outcome we can't often, if ever, see in the midst of the trial or discipline.

We must view judgment from the heart instead of today's news blurbs can be seen as painful mercy. Not because it is awesome or feels good, but because it stands in the way of something worse; like the Cherubim with the flaming sword in Eden. He would rather wound us than lose us; refine us than discard us. Let that sink a moment.

The same God who kept chaos and utter destruction at bay with the flood now holds back our own destruction through discipline, correction, and restraint. He doesn't do it to make us feel small or insignificant, He does it to bring us through it, shining like purified silver reflecting the exact image of Refiner's face ... He does it to restore our vocation and calling as bearers of His image.

We've all had our share of trial and hardship. Truthfully, we've probably all had our share of discipline and correction. Where in your own life have you interpreted the difficulty of discipline or hardship as punishment instead of refinement? How would things looks differently if you trusted that God intends abundance on the other side of endurance?

Father, sometimes I find it hard to trust you in the middle of the flood and the fire. Give me the courage to understand and believe you are refining, not rejecting me. Bring me through it. Make me reflect your image. In Jesus name, Amen.