Today's Devotional
February 27, 2003
Subject: Shaking The Box
1 Peter 1:7 - "That the trial of your faith, being much
more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire,
might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus
Christ"
As a kid I used to watch a lot of the old western movies. Frequently
they captured scenes of the days of the gold rush. It was always interesting
to see the prospectors mining for gold. They would use what appeared to
be a box with a screen on it, and then they would dip it down into the water
or the dirt and they would violently shake the box back and forth to filter
out the dirt and stuff. They would then take the remaining rocks and see
if they were real gold. Of course if they weren't, they would throw them
all back and repeat the mining process.
The part I remember most is how they used to shake that box back and forth
to get out the "other junk" so that they could get to the real stuff. I'm
sure that by now you know where I'm headed with this.
That shaking process is what happens when we have relationship problems,
financial problems, anxiety about the world situation, about our homes, our
families, our jobs and all of the other things that weigh so heavily on us.
The prospectors wanted to get to the real rocks so that they could examine
them more closely. God wants to get all of the "other stuff" out of the
way in our lives, so that we can see Him more clearly. He sees us perfectly,
but because we are covered with dirt and other impurities, He "shakes the
box." If we come through the circumstance trusting Him more and depending
on Him more, then He sees the gold nugget that He was looking for. If we
don't see Him in the circumstance and we keep fighting the situation, we
are not yet the gold that He wants, and like the prospectors, He throws us
back and mines us later until we become that gold nugget.
Understand today that He's mining for gold and rejoice that you're being shaken.
Carlen
