How would you like to reach your full potential? Plenty of people, gurus, companies, books, and even our own military want to help you with that. The Army’s motto says exactly that, “Be all you can be in the Army.” How often do you look in the mirror and wish something would change in your life? How often do you reflect on yourself and wish you were better at this or that? Some of us wish we were smarter while others wish we had better social skills. Some wish we were more spiritual while others wish they had better control of their lives. The media doesn’t help as it bombards little girls with ridiculous expectations of how they are to look. They show men as dumb goofs who have no clue and dominating women who just can’t be skinny enough for their husbands. No one looks good enough today. How can we reach any real potential in a world with such pathetic values?
We should understand it isn’t the strongest, smartest, or best looking people who win. For instance, “Even if you never earned a college degree, don’t worry, you’re in good company. Irving Berlin, for instance, only had two years of formal schooling. He never learned how to read music. When he composed his songs, he would hum the melody and a musical secretary would write down the notes. He became one of the greatest songwriters the country has ever known.” (Bits and Pieces, December 13th, 1990) The smartest men don’t always win wars as well. “General Mark Clark was one of the great heroes of WWII. He led the Salerno invasion that Winston Churchill said was "the most daring amphibious operation we have launched, or which, I think, has ever been launched on a similar scale in war." At the time Clark was promoted to Lt. General, he was the youngest man of that rank in the U.S. Army. He graduated from West Point in 1917. At the top of his class? Nope. He was 111th from the top in a class of 139!” ( Ibid.)
If we do not need to be the fastest, smartest, strongest, or luckiest then how can we possibly find and fulfill our full potential. Turn in your Bibles to Malachi 3:1-6. Here God makes a promise and declaration to the people of Israel who have been scattered across the whole world. This book was the last book written in the Old Testament until the appearance of Christ over 400 years later. God had a plan during this time to send someone to help Israel grow to their full potential. That same person can help you and I grow to our full potential. You can fulfill your potential through God’s messenger and fire, so that you will not be consumed. Let’s learn today how we can better live up to the potential that God has given all of us.
In Comparison to Christ – (3:1-2a)
“Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts. “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears?”
God promises to send two messengers here in this passage; one will “clear the way before Him” and the other will be the messenger of the covenant. The clearer will be none-other than John the Baptist who called all people to repentance before Christ’s earthly ministry began. This would make the second messenger Christ himself who brought to us the new covenant. The old covenant required the death of an animal to remove sin from our lives but the new covenant only required the death of Christ himself, once and for all. Christ has already come according to us but Malachi was written 400 years before Christ. They would be expecting a savior and messiah and yet this text says “Who can stand or endure Christ’s coming?” Why? Because Christ came and lived a perfect life even though he was tempted just as we are tempted. His life stood as a direct contrast to the way mankind lives. No one can stand in front of purity and holiness without being convicted of their sins.
“Once, as an experiment, the great scientist Isaac Newton stared at the image of the sun reflected in a mirror. The brightness burned into his retina, and he suffered temporary blindness. Even after he hid for three days behind closed shutters, still the bright spot would not fade from his vision. "I used all means to divert my imagination from the sun," he writes, "But if I thought upon him I presently saw his picture though I was in the dark." If he had stared a few minutes longer, Newton might have permanently lost all vision. The chemical receptors that govern eyesight cannot withstand the full force of unfiltered sunlight. There is a parable in Isaac Newton’s experiment, and it helps illustrate what the Israelites ultimately learned from the wilderness wanderings. They had attempted to live with the Lord of the Universe visibly present in their midst; but, in the end, out of all the thousands who had so gladly fled Egypt, only two survived God’s Presence. If you can barely endure candlelight, how can you gaze at the sun?” (Philip Yancey, Disappointment With God, Zondervan, p. 74.)
In comparison to purity of Christ, we are but dirt and mud on what used to be a clean sheet. However, when we accept Christ, the messenger of the New Covenant, we get an almost surreal awakening of our spirit so that we no longer have to consider ourselves dirty and unclean. We can be purified just as Christ is pure. The whole point of the New Covenant was to build bridge between God who is holy and man who is normally not. Christ died so that man could become pure again and by so doing will be able to commune and speak with God. 1 John 3:3 even tells us that if we continually focus on Christ we will continue to purify ourselves until the day He comes again. The initial revival of our souls is only the beginning though.
He Will Purify Us – (3:2b-4)
“For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.”
When we accept Christ and are baptized our sins are removed (Acts 2:38). Our souls are brought back to life again but that isn’t the end of the journey as some suppose. Once we have been revived we must be purified because as you all know mankind has a tendency to fall short and fail. This is where God’s grace kicks in and also his relentless task of purifying us. He is like a refiner’s fire and a fuller’s soap. Silver smiths took ores and refined them to get the purest silver they possibly could. God himself wants to refine His children so that they become pure. The biggest and most important part of the refining process was the heating of the metal. There is a story that has circulated about a women’s bible study group.
“That week the woman called up a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn’t mention anything about the reason for her interest in silver beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that, in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest so as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot - then she thought again about the verse, that He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver. She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. For if the silver was left even a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed. The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?" He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that’s the easy part -- when I see my image reflected in it."”
God wants to refine us and remove all our impurities but it takes a little fire to do so. God uses the fires in our lives to teach us lessons and to build us up. When the fires in our lives seem the worst, God has us just where he wants. We must endure the hottest part of the fire. No matter what struggle we face. Maybe your finances have gone down the tubes and you do not know how you will make it. Maybe your marriage is on the rocks and needs a major overhaul in humility. Whatever the situation in your life may be, God is using it to help you grow if only you will listen to His voice. He will sit and watch you in the fire ever so patiently. God, himself and no other, watches over us. He sits waiting and watching so that we will not burn up. He ever so carefully pulls us out of the fire at just the right time so that we will cool in the most pure state we can be in at that moment.
How can we endure the coming of Christ? How can we withstand His judgment? Through accepting Christ and slowly being purified so that in that day when time ends we will be ready. Then, after we have been purified, we will be judged and not consumed.
Then We Will Be Judged and Not Consumed – (3:5-6)
“Then I will draw near to you for judgment; and I will be swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the wage earner in his wages, the widow and the orphan, and those who turn aside the alien and do not fear Me,” says the Lord of hosts. “For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.
After a period of time, who knows how long, Christ will once again come to earth but this time it will not be to bring salvation. This time Christ will be coming to judge everyone in the world, including the Christians. He will judge those who choose to accept the occult and everyone who intentionally does what is against His will. Charles Spurgeon says it this way, “"If any of you, my hearers, are seeking the Lord at this time, I want you to understand what it means: you are seeking a fire which will test you, and consume much which has been dear to you. We are not to expect Christ to come and save us in our sins, he will come and save us from our sins; therefore, if you are enabled by faith to take Christ as a Savior, remember that you take him as the purger and the purifier, for it is from sin that he saves us."” (Spurgeon) He will save us from sin by removing it so that when He comes again to judge, he will see spotless sterling silver and in the silver He will see His own reflection and know that you are a child of his and no other. His fire will not consume us in that day because He does not change and His promises never fail.
Thankfully, God does not change and we will not be completely consumed by His fire so long as we continue on in Christ. One person writes of a story to they were told to explain the gospel. “It was of pioneers who were making their way across one of the central states to a distant place that had been opened up for homesteading. They traveled in covered wagons drawn by oxen, and progress was necessarily slow. One day they were horrified to note a long line of smoke in the west, stretching for miles across the prairie, and soon it was evident that the dried grass was burning fiercely and coming toward them rapidly. They had crossed a river the day before but it would be impossible to go back to that before the flames would be upon them. One man only seemed to have understanding as to what could be done. He gave the command to set fire to the grass behind them. Then when a space was burned over, the whole company moved back upon it. As the flames roared on toward them from the west, a little girl cried out in terror, "Are you sure we shall not all be burned up?" The leader replied, "My child, the flames cannot reach us here, for we are standing where the fire has been!"”
Once we have be refined in the fire of God’s grace, we will not have to fear the day of judgment because we will not be consumed and sent to the place of eternal torment. 1 John 2:28 says, “Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appear, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.” If we live with Christ we will be purified just as Christ is according to 1 John 3:3. Everyone who has chosen not to be purified in Christ will face the full wrath of God for their sins. This gives us a choice as of right now. We can choose to endure the fires of our lives with Christ now or we can choose to deny Christ and face the fire of His wrath later. He will never force you to make a decision but he will also never stop pressing forward for you to become a pure person. He wants you to reflect His image just as the silver smith can see his in the purified silver.
You can meet your full potential in Christ but you will have to go through some purification to become what He wants you to be. Beyond the money, smarts, job titles, that we so desire, He wants you and me to become reflections of Him. So, even when we don’t like it, He will hold us over the fire knowing full well how painful it is. It really is harder on a parent to discipline a child than it is for the child. Yet, God will do it so that we grow, learn, and become stronger people. You must learn to watch for those opportunities he places in your way. He places trouble in our paths sometimes so that we can grow from it. Yes, growing is painful but it is for our own good. No matter what struggle you are facing right now, trust God and learn from Him. Maybe you are being humbled because of your pride or maybe you are learning to rely on God instead of money because for He took it away. Don’t get mad at God for your mistakes and weakness. Be glad and treasure Him for helping you grow stronger and overcome it. You want to reach your full potential. Give God a try and see how you grow!
