Built on Rock, Shaped by Fire

Zechariah 12:1; 13:9

“This declares the Lord who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundations of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him.’

“And I will bring the third part through the fire, refine them as silver is refined.  And test them as gold is tested.  They will call on My name, and I will answer them; I will say, “They are My people, and they will say, “The Lord is my God.”

I was tasked with building a fence for a client back in the day. I proceeded to build it and cement the posts into the ground. My supervisor came by and inspected the job before I finished it. He gave one good push on the posts I had cemented, and they fell over as if I had not cemented them at all. It turned out that I had not taken the time to dig the holes wide and deep enough. This fence would have fallen down, and it was all because I had done a poor job of making sure the posts were firmly cemented into the ground.

Nothing is stable with a poor foundation. Whatever is built upon one seems to be in constant movement that ultimately leads to cracks, failure, and eventually destruction. In the Gospels, Jesus tells the story of the man who built his house on the rock and the one who built his house on the sand. The interesting thing is that the storm comes to both houses.

Jesus is not promising a life of ease on the beach of life, sipping a cocktail, but rather pointing His listeners to something that will befall us all: storms. They come in all different shapes and sizes, from bad relationships to financial problems. Some are meant to refine us and test us to see if any impurities remain—sin, in other words—while others are the result of our own poor decisions.

In the diamond world, impurities are the main reason for a drop in value: more impurities mean less worth. Only the purest diamonds, with no impurities, command the highest prices. You see, diamonds are made under extreme pressure and temperature. The pressure and heat are the agents that remove impurities because those impurities cannot withstand the conditions. Only the pure carbon structure of the diamond remains after the extreme conditions eliminate the non-carbon elements.

Zechariah 12:1 tells us that the Lord lays the foundations of the earth and forms the spirit of man within him—the purest diamond, in other words. Verse 9 of chapter 13 tells us that the Lord will refine us like silver is refined and test us as gold is tested. Since we are born into a sinful world and have a sinful nature, we are born with impurities, and those impurities are not part of God’s plan.

Some of you may be comfortable with those impurities and shrug them off as your identity. This stands in stark contrast to the verses above. They tell us that the Lord forms the spirit of man within him. In other words, the Lord does not impart impurities into you. Instead, He made us in His image, like the purest diamonds. The refining that comes into your life is a test meant to weed out those things that would separate us from the love of Christ.

After you are refined, you will call on the Lord, and He will answer you. Then you will respond with a declaration that only the Spirit of God within you can make: “The Lord is my God.” Christ, the solid Rock, is where I stand; all other ground is sinking sand. The heat and pressure of the refiner’s fire are meant to melt you down until the Lord can remove all the junk in your life so that you can be used for the Master’s work.

Today, stop identifying yourself by your flaws and realize that your identity is in Christ. We are born into this world, but we are not of this world; our home is in heaven. Leave behind the house you have built on the sands of life that cannot withstand the storms, and begin building your house upon the Rock of Christ.

Prayer: Father, I pray that I will build my entire life upon the solid Rock of Christ Jesus, who is the Author and Finisher of my faith. I need nothing else to add to or complete what You have done in me. I am made whole in Jesus, and I will be victorious through His power in my life and no other. I pray that these impurities will be removed until others see only Jesus in my life. In Jesus’ name, amen.