Character Refined

By: Tara McClenahan, iBloom Associate

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my thoughts.
Point out anything in me that offends You,
and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
Psalm 139:23-24 NLT

The psalmist prayed a pretty bold prayer, didn't he? He willingly invited God to inspect his heart and thoughts - in essence, his character. Not only did he invite God to inspect, but he invited God to TEST him!!! What was he thinking??!! And then he went so far as to invite God to point out where he failed the test! I don't know about you, but I think that takes guts!

Embarking on the road of Godly character development is not for the faint of heart nor should it be done on a whim. It is a journey that requires dedication, submission and ultimate trust in God because character work is done by the Holy Spirit in our heart of hearts - at the very spiritually cellular level of who we are. In fact, this process is more accurately called character refinement. All of us have character traits and all of them can be plotted on the Godly character scale. To our dismay, some, if not most of them, score pretty low on that scale. So then, character refinement can be defined as the testing, purifying and proving of our character - or our mettle, so to speak. And as any piece of beautifully pure gold will tell you, it is this refinement process that is the hardest thing it will ever go through.

It is easy to stay in the untested, unpurified, unproven state. It doesn't involve anything on our part. We can try in our strength to be as pretty as we can in our current state and act like we have Godly character in front of others while all the while our heart and thoughts betray the true state of affairs. We can justify remaining in this state by saying to ourselves, "I'm not ALL bad! Sure I've got some ugly bits of dross in me and maybe some of my hidden parts aren't the greatest but look at that lump of coal sitting in the pew next to me! At least I've got some pretty gold sparkling through in spots. That should be enough to make God happy. Besides, I don't know that I want to go through the work to become PURE gold, especially if it involves pain of any sort." Yes, it would be easy to stay as we are but God has called His children to a higher level as Jesus illustrated in Matthew 5:48 AMP:

You, therefore, must be perfect [growing into complete maturity of godliness in mind and character, having reached the proper height of virtue and integrity], as your heavenly Father is perfect. (emphasis mine)

Thank God, we don't have to be perfect in our own power since Jesus filled that immense gap with His righteousness by taking our sins on Himself on the cross (see 2 Corinthians 5:21)! But we should desire, at the prompting of the Holy Spirit given to us at salvation, to become more like Jesus in every way. Romans 8:29 NLT says,

For God knew His people in advance, and He chose them to become like His Son, so that His Son would be the firstborn,with many brothers and sisters. (emphasis mine)

How do we become more like Jesus? Second Corinthians 3:18 (AMP) wonderfully describes this process:

And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.

Continually being transformed into His image involves fixing our eyes on Jesus, learning from His Word about how He wants us to live and who He wants us to become as His children and ambassadors and allowing Him to make the needed changes in our character to become more like Him.
I encourage you to make the psalmist's prayer your own. It is obviously not an easy thing but it takes guts. The Refiner's fire is hot and persistent and the process is lengthy, difficult and yes, sometimes painful. But if we are determined to submit to Him, stay in the fire and let Him do His work in us, we will be able to look in the mirror of God's Word and see that we are being transformed into His very own image. How could we be more beautiful than that?

LIFE APPLICATION

1. Are you willing to wholeheartedly pray as the psalmist did?
2. What would allowing God to work on your character require of you? Are you ready to do those things?
3. What personal character traits do you sense God wants to refine in you?

SUGGESTED ACTION STEPS

1. Take 10 minutes to get quiet with the Lord and read Psalm 139.
2. List at least 5 things this chapter tells you about God - Who He is, What He knows, What He does, etc.
3. Of the things you listed, which speaks to you most about God and why?
4. Pray and ask the Lord to prepare you for the work He wants to do in you.