ERICA DUNOMES

Today, I bring you the A Life Refined Bible Reading Plan. This ten-day

reading plan encourages you to live a life refined by God. In it the

focus is on all of the times God purposefully allowed the

children of Israel to go through some testing and trials in their lives.

It also mentions a few times in the New Testament where testing

and trials were explained in the exact same manner. Testing and

trials were referenced in these moments in history as being tried by

the fire of the Refiner and after having endured coming out as

purified silver and gold.

Have you ever seen the process that silver and gold go through to be

refined? It is one pretty lengthy process as there is a lot of steps

involved. One step is refining.

Why is silver and gold refined?

Before these precious metals get to us, they are first found in their

not-so-purest form. After they have been mined from the earth, they

are then extracted from their ores. This process causes them to be

mixed with a lot of impurities that have to be removed. One method

used to remove the impurities is by the use of fire.

Here’s what this method looks like:

Refining silver or gold by fire requires that heat be applied. For that

to happen, the silver or gold is placed into a container that is able to

holdout through very high temperatures called a crucible. The

crucible then gets put into a furnace that gets heated to an extremely

hot temperature ranging at approximately 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

A heating process of this magnitude causes the impurities to float to

the surface, and the purest form of the silver or gold to sink to the

bottom. The impurities then get scraped away.

So why did God allow this type of testing?

In studying these particular verses of Scripture selected in this plan,

they reveal that God allowed these tests and trials to take place so

that He could remove from the children of Israel everything that was

not pure. That did not align according to His purpose for them. He

wanted them holy, righteous, and set apart unto Him. This would

cause others that they came in contact with to know that He was their

God, and they were His people. However, the children of Israel had

other plans. They got mixed up in the culture of the people around

them. They turned away from worshiping God, to worshiping false

idols. So, in an act of mercy, God allowed them to face those

hardships and trials as a way to get them to return back to Him.

For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined. 
~Psalms 66:10

What God did back then, He is still doing today.

God is still allowing tests and trials in the lives of His people. It is

clear that He still wants a people who are set apart, righteous, and

holy unto Himself. The process that He takes you through is that of

being refined by fire like silver and gold.

What you go through is not in vain.

Have you been going through some testing and trials lately? Do you

feel as if you can’t seem to understand what is going on? God will

never waste your pain. His plan and purpose are to grow you through

it. Look to Him and trust the process.

A Life Refined Bible Reading Plan