Dross

As I am reading in my Old Testament Survey book, I come across the story of Ezekiel. Ezekiel and Jeremiah are such sad stories because it tells of the history of the failing Jerusalem. God tries and tries again to have His people repent of their sins, stop worshiping false idols and give themselves to Him, but they don't listen. They even get captured, put into captivity and die before the listen to God's prophets.

I was reading about Ezekiel and right before God's judgement on Judah, he presents 3 oracles to the people. One of those speaks of "dross." Now, for you machine and metal workers, you probably know what this is. Dross is the material that is in metal and floats to the top when you are refining metal, to make the metal pure metal. The dross is all the material that is lighter and unpure, and it floats to the top. It is worth nothing and gets skimmed out and thrown away.

Ezekiel told the people that as God refined His people that he found a lot of spiritual dross in their lives. He would remove it through the fires of judgment. This got me thinking about my own spiritual dross. What are the unpure things in my life that I need to remove and let God throw away in my life?

Unlike that time, God has given us direct access to Him through Jesus Christ. We can come to God, and He will remove the spiritual dross from our lives, as long as we repent and mean it. We need to repent and let God remove all the spiritual dross in our lives so that we can be more pure and serve Him with a pure heart!

Will you let God refine you and remove the spiritual dross in your lives, or will you serve the Lord your God with an unpure heart?