BECOMING A KINGDOM WOMAN, Part Three, The Refining

Trust the process!  Those three words summarized for me the gist of session three, of our six week study.  It was entitled, The Refining of a Kingdom Woman.  Sometimes it feels like I'll never make it!  I've blown it too many times! I'll never  be all that God wants me to be!  I'm not talking about the misguided goal of perfectionism discussed in last week's blog.  Just achieving the Christian ordinary!  Rendering reasonable service, as Paul describes it in Romans 12:1-2.  That which is sacred and spiritual.  Rational and intelligent acts that please God.

There's nothing more pitiful than a defeated Christian!   And that's the attitude, I just wrote
 about above.  Although it is quite normal to have times of doubt and discouragement on this Christian journey, we must not lose hope!  We have to remember that our quest to become Kingdom minded is not a sprint but a marathon.  We've just got to trust the process!  

God has been using flawed humans since the Garden of Eden!  Whereas mankind generally frowns upon using goods that are damaged, called seconds, or irregulars.  God has a whole bible full of them!  Men and women who would never make any one's Who's Who, list of the prestigious.   Chrystal Evans Hurst gives us a sampling of them in this list:


*Noah was a drunk
*Abraham was too old
*Isaac was a daydreamer
*Jacob was a liar
*Leah was ugly
*Joseph was abused
*Moses had a stuttering problem
*Samson was a womanizer
*Rahab was a prostitute
*David had an affair and was a murderer
*Peter denied Christ
*Paul was too religious
* Lazarus was dead

 God achieved great and mighty things through these damaged goods! And He can do the same thing with us.  If only we will submit our shortcomings, our failure, our flaws to Him for refining! 

 To  refine means to purify, to free from imperfection, to remove impurities, dross, sediment or rubbish!  That's what the blood of Jesus did for us!  ...the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son , purifies us from all sin (I John 1:7b).  All the trials, the setbacks, the struggles with temptations we experience are mere refining tools of Christ to make us into what He has already ordained us to be!  "Being confident of this, that He that hath begun a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6)

Chrystal went on to explain that the ugliest, most beat up pots in the kitchen are the ones that are most used and produce the best flavor because they are seasoned!  Kingdom woman in the making, we must learn to use our scars and wounds not hide them for they are evidence of the mighty power of God and what He can do with imperfect lives.  Like the ugly pots in your cupboard we can be the ones God uses  to produce good results.  We just have to learn to trust the process!

Remember,  God is not through with any of us yet we are just on His Refining Wheel!