Music courtesy of The Falls Church Anglican Choir, Falls Church, Virginia, under the musical direction of Simon Dixon. Audio mastering by Andrew Schooley. From Messiah by George Frideric Handel (1742)

Listen to the full playlist for Handel’s Messiah.

I was journeying down Handel’s highway of sung Scriptures, rejoicing in God’s comfort toward His people, and anticipating the hallelujahs. Suddenly, I rounded an unexpected curve and heard: God is like a refiner’s fire!¹

A refiner’s fire eliminates all dross until only pure silver remains. Could the God of all comfort journey with us through purifying fires so that in the end we leap up and sing hallelujah?²

My journey with Jesus says yes. Our pilgrimage together began over sixty years ago, and His comfort and hope have carried me. I do not fear the fire of God’s judgment because I believe Jesus bore my sins in my place and rose again to give me his life.³

However, there is another fire He is also teaching me not to fear: His refining fire. My fire fringed journey has included sharp turns through blazing valleys of crushed expectations, devastating betrayals, unexpected failures, and stubborn enigmas.

Trusting God through these fires has convinced me of His relentless quest to do what is best for me—to rid me of my “hail-to-me” dross addiction and replace it with the sterling silver of His “hallelujah.”⁴ During a season of broken-heartedness, I discovered what the apostle Paul did: “When we are burdened excessively, beyond our strength so that we despair even of life, know that God is working so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead” (2 Cor. 1:8–9). Through the fires I have learned that Jesus is my companion in the blaze and the Refiner controlling the thermostat.⁵

Don’t fear His fire; it’s leading to hallelujah!