A Heart Operation Only God Can Do

“The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.” (Pr 17:3 AV)

The little word ‘…but…’ gives all that we need to understand the truth of this proverb.  There is a fining pot and furnace for the refining of precious metals.  However, no such thing is available for the trying of the heart.  We can prove or purify all that we have.  We have the means to do so.  We have the physical tools necessary.  We can boil implements to kill germs.  We can through silver in a pot so the sludge floats to the top.  We can place gold in a furnace so the sludge forms at the top.  There are means to cleanse what we hold in our hands.  But to purify the heart, only the LORD has the means.  To some degree, we can examine and try to discern the heart; whether ours our another’s.  But to try the heart is an operation which only God can do.

This truth has several applications.  We need to remember that observation of another does not imply the ability to perfectly discern their heart.  There may be times we are right.  However, there are an equal amount of times we are not right.  The most pointed of applications is the trying of our own hearts.  It his been proven to me over and again that God often sends harsh experiences into our lives for the purpose of revealing just what kind of a person we are.  He either allows or sends difficult times to show us we are not what we thought we were.  Job is a perfect example.  A man that feared God and eschewed evil, he lived in according to the word of God and made sacrifice for his own family who did not follow his example.  The LORD allowed Satan to try Job in the form of the loss of his family, wealth, and health.  Everything of value was taken from him.  Although Job never sinned with his lips, what he did discover is his expectations of guaranteed blessings if he walked with the LORD.  He wanted his life to end.  He wished that he had never been born.

The fact is, we are not what we think we are.  Even the spiritual discipline of devotions cannot adequately try the heart.  Circumstances that challenge the heart is what is needed and only God can do that.  It is not easy.  Sometimes, it is down right unpleasant.  But necessary it is.  The LORD tries the heart because we cannot try our own.  He calls us on the carpet and challenges what we believe about ourselves.  It is a hard exercise.  But a good one.  It is a dose of reality.  A bath of cold water on a fridged day.  A harsh truth that causes us to look ourselves in the mirror, take stock, and admit we are not what we thought we were.  No furnace or pot can do this.  No self-diagnoses is possible.  This trying of the heart is a divine operation that only He can accomplish.  Bow to it.  Internalize it.  Thank God for it who will not allow us to remain as we are.  Praise the LORD for His faithfulness in the trying of our deepest recesses of the heart.