"...he is like a refiner's fire..." (Malachi 3:2)
Refiner’s specialized in hand-forged items. Unlike the mass-produced items that we are used to in our modern age, most of the products he offered were heated in a coal forge and shaped under the rhythmic beating of the blacksmith’s hammer on his anvil. Because of the inconsistency that comes with hand-forging anything, the item that you got would be the only one exactly like it in the world.
Now think about God as that Refiner's fire. He specializes in handling you and I personally. He doesn't mass produce Christians like many Mega-Mart Churches of our modern day. God takes those few that are consecrated to Him, and hide themselves away in prayer. They are seeking to put Him first in their lives. They allow the Holy Ghost to begin hammering away alternating between being placed in the fire and then being dipped in the water over and over. The heat is applied to allow us to bend to the blow of the hammer and anvil. It is not comfortable, it is not pleasant. But, when He is finished, you will be that one of a kind vessel that is prepared and ready to be used by the Master for whatever purpose He chooses.
The question is, "Am I willing to be put in the fire? Am I willing to suffer the blows? Am I willing to endure the bending and molding and shaping? If so, then I "...shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work" (2 Timothy 2:21)
