Devotion 27 January 2026

For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son. Romans 8: 29

READING: Malachi 3: 2-3

Malachi was a prophet who lived approximately 400 years before Jesus walked this earth. He was sent by God to declare certain truths; to remind the Israelites of their covenant with God and God’s deep love for them.

What the prophet Malachi delivered by comparing God’s influence to a refiner’s fire was a powerful picture of what happens when God’s people encounter his transformative power. A refiner’s fire melts down a metal, such as gold or silver, for purification purposes. Once a metal is in its melted down state, the dross in the metal rises to the top and is then removed from the metal before it cools.

A perfect storm is an unusual combination of events or things that produce an unusually bad or powerful result.

Sometimes we may feel as if we are living in a perfect storm, a modern-day Job, battered by circumstances beyond our control. Or sometimes we feel as if we are melting down in a blazing fire of unrelenting bad events.

And we hold onto the promise in Romans 8:28 that when a bad thing happens, it will turn into a good thing, as it says, “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God.”

But sometimes there are some bad things that are just always bad things. Then we must read further in Romans, and find the verse that comes after Romans 8:28: “For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son”. Sometimes He uses the raging storm or the fire to bring about fundamental changes in our lives. Part of God’s role in our lives is to refine us, just as a refiner would purify precious metals like gold or silver. The Lord’s end game is not to make us happy, but to make us more like Jesus. What an honour, to think that God has that aim for our lives! We can ride out any storm, working with Him to become the person He wishes us to be.

Prayer

Lord, there are troubles in life that never make sense to me, and yet You are working amidst those troubles, turning them into the perfecting storm, through which You are making me more like Jesus. For this I thank You. In Jesus’ name. Amen