Pray This Prayer When You’re in the Refining Fire
The snow outside was knee-deep when I counted the days and realized that I hadn’t left the house in 28 days. The refining fire was burning away the dross in my life, and it hurt.
The illness was so severe that I’d quit jogging and hiking two months prior. I said goodbye to walks to the creek and resigned myself to long days spent lying flat on my back.
The walls were closing in as the darkness fell earlier and earlier. The only cheer came from the rainbow of lights strung over the pine tree in the corner of the room. As the days wore on, I wrestled with God over the timing of my illness.
Some people say we shouldn’t ask God why refining fires come into our lives.
When I couldn’t take it any longer, I finally had a long chat with God about why he permitted my illness. I was desperate to see a glimpse of God’s purpose that might help me to endure.
Very few journeys are harder than walking through the refining fire with no sense of purpose for the suffering.
Very few journeys are harder than walking through the refining fire with no sense of purpose for the suffering. #suffering #refiningfire #trials #encounteringGod Click To TweetGod’s Purpose for the Refining Fires
I don’t know where you’re facing the fire today, friend. But I’m guessing you know a thing or two about the flames.
Your fire might be a debilitating illness or a ruined relationship that threatens to derail your whole life. Maybe you’re facing an uncertain future, a financial emergency, or a lingering fear. Maybe you’re under a cloud of discouragement that just won’t lift.
You might be asking God why and coming up short.
Ask me how I know.
One snowy December night, alone in my bed at 7 p.m., I asked God why.
My family giggled and made memories downstairs, and I was tired of the suffering. I was tired of feeling left out and overlooked by God. I whispered my why to the darkness, and the room remained silent. No thundering voice from above. No still small voice with the winter wind. Just silence.
A Different Question to Ask in the Fire
I rolled over to find sleep, disgusted by the silence, when a thought floated through my mind. It was a nudge to ask a different question, a deeper question. The question was not why; it was how . . .
This new question changed everything about the way I saw my struggle.
Instead of pleading with God and asking why he permitted my pain, my new question opened my spiritual eyes.
I whispered my new prayer in the darkness, “Father, how are you using this trial to answer my deepest prayers?”
And then I remembered.
I remembered the heart issues I’d been praying about throughout the past year.
The Refining Fire Is Often the Answer to Your Deepest Prayers
I’d been praying for God to teach me to exchange control for surrender. I was praying to stop rushing through my life. I was praying I’d learn to appreciate my children, savor small moments, and notice sunrises and robins and simple joys.
There in the darkness, I realized God was using my illness to directly answer my prayers.
I couldn’t rush or hurry. I was forced to lie still, smile at the nuances of my kids, and give thanks for simple joys like Christmas lights, the scent of pine, and woodpeckers pounding against the bird feeder outside.
God was using my refining fire to answer my prayers.
What Is God Doing in Your Refining Fire?
It’s easy to blame all of life’s fires on the hand of the enemy; however, there are times when the fires of life are the very direct answers to our prayers, sent from the hand of God himself. How often do we rush through the refining fire and miss the lessons meant to be gleaned?
How often do we rush through the refining fire and miss the lessons meant to be gleaned? #refiningfire #faith Click To TweetAn Invitation to Pause in the Middle of the Refining Fire
Your refining fire most likely looks different than mine.
Will you pause to ask how God might be using it to answer your prayers?
This frightening diagnosis might be his tool to help you overcome fear and worry.
This disappointment might be his tool to teach you what it means to hope in him alone.
Your broken relationship might be his way of leading you to surrender control. It might be teaching you unconditional love. It might be chiseling away some hard part of your heart that’s been keeping you in chains for years.
Will you sit with God today and ask him to show you how he is using the refining fire to answer your prayers? Pause right now and offer him space to show you this very moment, friend.
The refining fire of illness eventually began to improve in my life.
I am well again.
I am also different than I was before the illness.
The refining fire has done its work.
I wouldn’t volunteer to walk through it again. However, I am emerging just a little softer, a little deeper, a little more like the woman I’ve been praying to become.
A Free Devotional to Help You Through the Refining Fire in Your Life:
Are you ready for a fresh breath of hope to help you through a difficult season? My gift to you is my free online devotional, Rays of Light for the Dark Days. This devotional offers inspiration and practical encouragement to help you through life’s trials. It is yours by clicking here.
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Attention, all moms and daughters!
Lastly, in addition to writing to adults, I am also passionate about ministering to the next generation.
My 12-year-old daughter Bekah and I wrote a mother-daughter devotional book together. We hope to help moms and daughters connect and grow in faith together. Girl to Girl: 60 Mother-Daughter Devotions for a Closer Relationship and Deeper Faith includes 60 devotions with Scripture, commentaries from both of us, conversation starters, and even a shared journaling section.
Our vision is for girls ages 7-17 to enjoy it with their moms, grandmas, or older women they look up to. However, mothers and daughters of all ages are using this book to grow closer together! This book makes a wonderful gift for a mother or daughter you care about!
You can buy your paperback or eBook on Amazon right here. 
