I don't like crucibles; especially when I'm in one. According to Webster, crucibles are vessels that are used for severe testing with plans to influence change or development.  Crucibles are used primarily for these purposes: To melt, to mold, or to smelt. They are uncomfortable situations, and I want out of them just as quickly as I find myself in them.

Our economy is in a crucible. For most of us, our employment is in a crucible. Our leadership. Our business. Our family situation. Name it, most of us are in one.

Whether or not you are an Old Testament reader, this story about Elijah is a good read.  In the book of 1 Kings 17:8-9, Elijah finds himself in a crucible. He went from the frying pan, a place in the desert where the brook he was drinking from dried up, into the fire. The place to which God directed him was a location called Zarephath, which in Hebrew means crucible.

Basically God said, "Go to the place where the people are bitter enemies, where they worship other Gods and not me, and the place where the father of the queen you're running from rules."

If I'm Elijah, I'm thinking, "No way, Jose. There is not a chance in hell I'm going there." Hell, huh? Sounds like heat, a fire, much like a crucible.

What I have come to realize is that often times God allows the heat to be turned up in my small, selfish little world and I find myself being tested not once or twice but back to back situations. Or as Chuck Swindoll suggests,  "Or perhaps it would be even more accurate to say back to back to back to back to back. Usually, His preparatory tests don't stop with one or two. They multiply. And as soon as you climb out of one crucible thinking, "Okay, I made it through that one," you're plunged into another, where the flame is even hotter."

I'm in one.  How about you?  I don't like the heat but have to trust God that He is purifying me for His greater purpose.  He has a plan.  I don't know what it is but I want to be faithful and find out.  Why?  Because I know for me, crucibles create Christlikeness and I want to be more like him now than ever before.

rb