Having spent my adult life as a professional writer, I know quite well the compulsion to refine my messages.
My wife Lori is used to my late Saturday nights at the computer, not because I’m writing a last-minute sermon but instead because I’m polishing it.
Shape, sharpen and condense are the missions of those midnight moments.
With years of work as an editor, the fact is that my communication efforts are never sharp enough in my book.
There is always a better way to say it.
Come Sunday morning, though, I have to go with whatever stage the message is at.
Were I to preach the message the next day, I’d be shaping and sharpening and condensing even more the night before.
Why? Because refining never goes out of style.
I have a very good role model for this pattern, by the way.
Not in the sense of taking flawed messages and making them better, but instead of providing readers and hearers with perfect messages of hope and guidelines for holiness.
I’m talking about God, of course.
I should never stop trying to improve as a communicator since I’ve been called to grow more effective in sharing the flawless Word of God.
“The words of the Lord are flawless, like silver purified in a crucible, like gold refined seven times.” (Psalm 12:6)
Listen, whether we’re writing or speaking to others about the Bible, we should never stop thinking and praying and asking for advice from other believers regarding how we communicate God’s holiness and mercy.
Before we talk with others about our faith or about the message of God’s hope or the pattern of acceptable lifestyles, it’s important that our thoughts and words are refined by God’s Spirit, perhaps even seven times over.
That’s why it is SO important that we pray for wisdom and humility before we speak of faith with others.
We want to have the confidence that what we’re sharing has been refined.
Gold already starts out as better than all other metals, but after seven times of refinement, the purity is off the charts.
God has given us His pure love and pure grace and pure statements of what should be our purpose for living.
Let’s do the work of refinement as God answers our prayers for wisdom and opportunity to share.
As always, I love you
Martin
