The dross is the impurities that keep silver from being sterling. The silversmith cannot work with the silver until the dross is removed. God cannot work with us until the dross is removed. Take a look at the Apostle Paul, who was originally Saul of Tarsus. We first meet him at the stoning of Stephen, the first martyr:
At
this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all
rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile,
the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. -- Acts
7: 57-58 (NIV)
Saul presided over the death of Stephen, as well as many other Christians. He led the persecution of the early church. He had about as bad a past as any Christian could have. But God had a purpose for him:
But
the Lord said to Ananias, "Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my
name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of
And Saul would suffer for Christ. Five different times receiving 39 lashes. Three times beaten with rods. Put in prison, whipped and flogged. Three times shipwrecked including one time spending the entire night adrift at sea. Eventually executed for his beliefs. He would suffer but not as the Saul of his past but as the Paul God intended him to be! Some times God has to change some things in you in order for you to become who He wants you to be! The name Saul would have defined him and followed him the rest of his life. God had to change who he was. He had to refine out of him the heavy dross his past had become to his future. Paul never forgot where God found him but he never allowed it to define him:
Not
that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I
press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers,
I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do:
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward
the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ
Jesus. -- Philippians 3: 12-14 (NIV)
He focuses on one thing -- the prize for which God is calling us. And he does it simply by forgetting what is past and straining towards what lies ahead. That is how your past will refine you. You learn, you change, and you move on. The future lies ahead but too often we are passive in our pursuit of it. We over-Christianize things. We say that we are "waiting for God" when sometimes He is actually waiting for us. We do not strain properly towards the future. Straining towards the future takes an effort. Our Christianity is not meant to be a passive endeavor. God has a future out there for each and every one of us. A future that is in our overall best interest and brings glory to His name. But we have to strain towards it. God isn't text messaging you instructions tomorrow beloved. We have to seek His face. We have to seek His will.
In the Old Testament we see a character who was allowing his past to define who he was. To say Jacob came from a dysfunctional family is an understatement. His family today could have been on an episode of Jerry Springer! His very name means "deceiver" -- not exactly a ringing endorsement from your parents! First he deceives his brother Esau out of his birthright as the first born son for a mere bowl of lentils. Next he deceives his father Isaac, taking advantage of his old age and blindness, and tricks him into giving the firstborn blessing to him instead of his brother. Mind you, he did this at the direction and with the help of his mother! With his brother wanting to kill him he has to flee from his home and eventually ends up in the company of Laban. He agrees to work seven years for Laban in exchange for his daughter in marriage but Laban swindles Jacob and he has to take both daughters and work 14 years. Sometimes when you live by deception, it can bite you too! But Jacob was a far better deceiver than Laban and he used the extra time to swindle the vast majority of Laban's wealth from him. As Jacob is heading back to try and reconcile with his brother, we see that he is up all night wrestling with God.
