Time in the Furnace

The old blacksmith shop must have been a fine place of heat and toil. The images of this place are one of brawn and hard work. The smith could not have worked his craft without the anvil. That heavy slab of metal was the pounding block and surface in which the smith would bend and shape the heated metal into the final image. Boom, boom and a horseshoe was rendered; clank-clank, and out came a plowshare. Now, one should know that nothing could be produced without the benefit of the fire. The smith would crank up his fire in his stove and put that metal in there, bringing it out fiery- red; then and only then could the smith produce his craft. Only when its in the shape he wants does he submerge it beneath the cool water for the metals hardening.
Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being in the stove. I don’t like it when I’m the subject against the anvil. Life hurts and produces heat; life hurts and produces burrs and slag. Then we go into the sanctuary of God’s Word; we draw close to the throne in prayer. We discover that it’s time for the oven; we fret for its time at the anvil. The hammer falls and we bend; its clanks and we succumb. We pray for relief but it does not immediately come. We ask for the cool water, but it is lacking, nowhere to be found. Paul prayed to be rescued from the thorn in the flesh; he sought relief from the messenger of Satan. But God’s answer was “My grace is sufficient”. Spurgeon said, As sure as God puts His children in the furnace he will be in the furnace with them”. The three children of Israel (Shadrach, et al) trusted God…but they went in the furnace. They understood God, but they went in the furnace…they shunned the vain religion of Babylon, but they went in the furnace. I am sure it was hot in that furnace, but there was a fourth man! I see four, and the fourth is like the Son of God! Don’t pray for the water friend; look for the fourth!