As I was cleaning up around the barn one day, I came across some old horseshoes.  It had been several years since any of our horses required shoes, yet as I picked them up, I knew exactly what horse they came from.  These were no ordinary shoes; no, these had been refined by fire. 

I remember watching as the blacksmith started out with just an ordinary bar of iron.  He would heat it in the forge until it was red hot.  Taking it carefully with tongs, he would remove it and then placing it on the anvil he began to beat it with his hammer. 

Shhh…can you hear it?  “Clang, ding ding.....clang, ding ding….the iron bounced with each hit of the hammer….. Then back into the fire it would go, and once again to the anvil….

Eventually it was shaped just right, placed in cold water to make it set, and then to the horse’s hoof.  Occasionally it would have to go back into the fire, and then to the anvil until it was just right.

I couldn’t help but think about how I was no different from that horseshoe.  Starting out I was just “ordinary”….no shape to my life and no direction.  As I look back I can see now the many times that God had to keep putting me back in the fire, then allowing me to be placed on the anvil of life.  With each pounding of the hammer I learned how to trust God; how to depend on Him and to have faith in Him.

In what ways have you experienced the Refiner's fire in your life? 

Have you learned to depend on Him? 

If not....why not?