If you watched my last video, you may have remembered me saying that I really was not going through anything that would be considered the refiners fire. What I did not know was there was something in the works. Sometime earlier in the day my cat Little had slipped out of the house unknown to me. My nephew had come over with his daughter to help flip my mattress and Little had gone missing. This did not surprise me at first because whenever someone comes over she hides and will not come out sometimes for hours at a time. I did not get concern until around 11:00 PM. I first searched out all the usual hiding places, but found no Little. To some of you this does not mean a thing to you, but to me all my critters are important to me, they are a great God given blessing. Her usual hiding spots were under the beds. When I did not find her there, I searched in cabinets and the bathroom vanities. I looked under chairs and sofas, but no Little. If you had driven by my house you would found me outside with a flashlight around 2:00 AM, still no Little. I finally got to sleep around 4:00 AM. Sunday I started the search again, checking all the places 2 and 3 times. I went outside calling to her and called the neighbor asking her to be on the outlook for her. I knew at this point that she must be hungry so I placed cat food outside hoping she it would be attracted to the food, but there was no sign of my sweet cat.
Those of you that know me, you had heard me say that I never wanted another cat after my cats, Buddy and Sunny past at 19 years old. As I was praying one day I heard the Spirit of God saying within me that “I will give you things that you don’t even think you want”. Within a few days this cute little kitten showed up sitting in my driveway behind my house. At first she would not come near me, but the next morning she was so hungry that I did not have any problems winning her over. She won me over too. I reminded God I did not want a cat and He reminded me of the words I had heard in my spirit, “I will give you things that you don’t even think you want”. She has been with us for 2 years now. She has been the sweetest, funniest cat, entertaining us every day. By Monday I had given up looking for her, but continued to believe that she would come back to me.
I did everything that a good prayer warrior should do. I declared and decreed, I said the devil is not going to win, or whatever came to mind. One thing I did was meditate on the scriptures I had shared with you all last Saturday.
Instead of placing my full trust and confidence in God, I worried. I will be honest with you, I cried a little too. I reminded God He was the one that blessed me with her and it was on Him to keep her safe and bring her back to me. I often pray protection over me and mine which includes my critters. So I did not understand why this had happened. I reminded Him I never wanted another cat, but He was the one that decided I should have her. Later I was thinking about the story about the woman that Elisha prayed that she should have a child. When her child died she reminded Elisha that she did not ask for a child so he needed to do something about bringing her child back to life. Through this I had more compassion for the families that lost there young daughters during the floods in Texas. This was just a cat, I cannot imagine the torment they went through.
Finally after I had done everything I knew to do, I just continued to believe that God would come to my cat’s rescue and bring her back to me.
I went back to the scripture in James where it is talking about the testing of our faith. I have meditated on this scripture quite a bit over the past week.
James 1:2-5
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
James talks about finding joy in the midst of trials and testing of our faith. What exactly does that look like? This sounds like a hard thing to do. I saw a video on social media of a group of girls on a bus that had been rescued when Camp Mystic was flooded. They had lost friends and seen some horrific things, yet they were singing praises to God. We can learn from them for sure. I cannot say I know exactly how to go through the trials of life while counting it all joy. Joy in this scripture means calm delight.
These are some the ways that counting it all joy looks like
Keeping our eyes on Jesus and off of the troubles and situation.
Reminding ourselves faith is trusting in the One that loves us.
Praising and delighting in Him even during times of adversity.
All these will cause our faith to grow and will cause us to be stronger in the Lord. Our strength comes from Him. When we mature in Christ enough to grasp that He has us and there is a purpose for everything that comes our way our steadfastness will mature and become complete. Then when we ask and not waiver we will be wanting for nothing.
Last time I mentioned that when a trial comes my direction there are two questions that I ask.
What can I learn from this?
How can You, God get the glory from this situation?
Instead of believing that God was taking care of my sweet cat, I was concerned that a fox or coyote would have her for their dinner. That is until Sunday evening I decided to trust God instead and believe that He would bring her back to me.
By now you are probably wondering what happened to my sweet girl. Monday morning when I let the dogs out to go to the bathroom, my dog Papa Stark started barking at something. I looked and saw my Little’s sweet face looking out of a slot underneath my heating system.
You would of thought that when she saw me she would have come running to me, but she did not. I called for her, I placed a plate of her food out knowing that she was probably very hungry. She did not budge, she would not come out. She was caught up in the fear of the unknown. I prayed for guidance of how to entice her from her hiding place. The scripture in James talks about us asking for wisdom and that He would give it freely. The problem is that we many times try to overcome our current problem the way we did with yesterday’s problems and that does not always work. Sometimes we get to thinking it is our faith that makes a difference in a situation. Our faith is a vessel, a catalyst that God works through to bring about the answer to our prayers, but it is the grace of God that does the work. We should never forget it is not about our works, but about His power working through us to accomplish the answer.
How did it all work out? After praying for direction, I laid down on the ground and shined a light under the heating system. When she saw my face, she came out of hiding but still refused to come out from under the system. It is the same when we gaze on the face of Jesus instead of our problem. I placed my hand in the hole and kept calling her and she laid her head in my hand so that I could rub her and comfort her. She was satisfied with just being able to feel my touch. After comforting her a little, she still refused to come out. I could not leave her there so I had to pull her out of her comfort zone. She felt safe in her hiding place and was afraid to come out and face the real world. I could not leave her there, so I pulled her out. I picked her up and held her close and brought her back to the place that she was truly safe in our home.
That sounds like us does it not. During the storms of life we hide away in the place we think is our safe space, our comfort zone, when God has something more for us. We fail to ask Him instructions of what to do instead we choose to do things that we think is the right way of doing it or how we have always done things. We are content just to have the touch of His Hand. When He wants to hold us in His arms. We settle for the less than instead for the fullness of all He has to offer.
Refiner’s Fire Part 2
September 17, 2025 by admin • blog • 0 Comments
If you watched my last video, you may have remembered me saying that I really was not going through anything that would be considered the refiners fire. What I did not know was there was something in the works. Sometime earlier in the day my cat Little had slipped out of the house unknown to me. My nephew had come over with his daughter to help flip my mattress and Little had gone missing. This did not surprise me at first because whenever someone comes over she hides and will not come out sometimes for hours at a time. I did not get concern until around 11:00 PM. I first searched out all the usual hiding places, but found no Little. To some of you this does not mean a thing to you, but to me all my critters are important to me, they are a great God given blessing. Her usual hiding spots were under the beds. When I did not find her there, I searched in cabinets and the bathroom vanities. I looked under chairs and sofas, but no Little. If you had driven by my house you would found me outside with a flashlight around 2:00 AM, still no Little. I finally got to sleep around 4:00 AM. Sunday I started the search again, checking all the places 2 and 3 times. I went outside calling to her and called the neighbor asking her to be on the outlook for her. I knew at this point that she must be hungry so I placed cat food outside hoping she it would be attracted to the food, but there was no sign of my sweet cat.
Those of you that know me, you had heard me say that I never wanted another cat after my cats, Buddy and Sunny past at 19 years old. As I was praying one day I heard the Spirit of God saying within me that “I will give you things that you don’t even think you want”. Within a few days this cute little kitten showed up sitting in my driveway behind my house. At first she would not come near me, but the next morning she was so hungry that I did not have any problems winning her over. She won me over too. I reminded God I did not want a cat and He reminded me of the words I had heard in my spirit, “I will give you things that you don’t even think you want”. She has been with us for 2 years now. She has been the sweetest, funniest cat, entertaining us every day. By Monday I had given up looking for her, but continued to believe that she would come back to me.
I did everything that a good prayer warrior should do. I declared and decreed, I said the devil is not going to win, or whatever came to mind. One thing I did was meditate on the scriptures I had shared with you all last Saturday.
Instead of placing my full trust and confidence in God, I worried. I will be honest with you, I cried a little too. I reminded God He was the one that blessed me with her and it was on Him to keep her safe and bring her back to me. I often pray protection over me and mine which includes my critters. So I did not understand why this had happened. I reminded Him I never wanted another cat, but He was the one that decided I should have her. Later I was thinking about the story about the woman that Elisha prayed that she should have a child. When her child died she reminded Elisha that she did not ask for a child so he needed to do something about bringing her child back to life. Through this I had more compassion for the families that lost there young daughters during the floods in Texas. This was just a cat, I cannot imagine the torment they went through.
Finally after I had done everything I knew to do, I just continued to believe that God would come to my cat’s rescue and bring her back to me.
I went back to the scripture in James where it is talking about the testing of our faith. I have meditated on this scripture quite a bit over the past week.
James 1:2-5
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
James talks about finding joy in the midst of trials and testing of our faith. What exactly does that look like? This sounds like a hard thing to do. I saw a video on social media of a group of girls on a bus that had been rescued when Camp Mystic was flooded. They had lost friends and seen some horrific things, yet they were singing praises to God. We can learn from them for sure. I cannot say I know exactly how to go through the trials of life while counting it all joy. Joy in this scripture means calm delight.
These are some the ways that counting it all joy looks like
All these will cause our faith to grow and will cause us to be stronger in the Lord. Our strength comes from Him. When we mature in Christ enough to grasp that He has us and there is a purpose for everything that comes our way our steadfastness will mature and become complete. Then when we ask and not waiver we will be wanting for nothing.
Last time I mentioned that when a trial comes my direction there are two questions that I ask.
Instead of believing that God was taking care of my sweet cat, I was concerned that a fox or coyote would have her for their dinner. That is until Sunday evening I decided to trust God instead and believe that He would bring her back to me.
By now you are probably wondering what happened to my sweet girl. Monday morning when I let the dogs out to go to the bathroom, my dog Papa Stark started barking at something. I looked and saw my Little’s sweet face looking out of a slot underneath my heating system.
You would of thought that when she saw me she would have come running to me, but she did not. I called for her, I placed a plate of her food out knowing that she was probably very hungry. She did not budge, she would not come out. She was caught up in the fear of the unknown. I prayed for guidance of how to entice her from her hiding place. The scripture in James talks about us asking for wisdom and that He would give it freely. The problem is that we many times try to overcome our current problem the way we did with yesterday’s problems and that does not always work. Sometimes we get to thinking it is our faith that makes a difference in a situation. Our faith is a vessel, a catalyst that God works through to bring about the answer to our prayers, but it is the grace of God that does the work. We should never forget it is not about our works, but about His power working through us to accomplish the answer.
How did it all work out? After praying for direction, I laid down on the ground and shined a light under the heating system. When she saw my face, she came out of hiding but still refused to come out from under the system. It is the same when we gaze on the face of Jesus instead of our problem. I placed my hand in the hole and kept calling her and she laid her head in my hand so that I could rub her and comfort her. She was satisfied with just being able to feel my touch. After comforting her a little, she still refused to come out. I could not leave her there so I had to pull her out of her comfort zone. She felt safe in her hiding place and was afraid to come out and face the real world. I could not leave her there, so I pulled her out. I picked her up and held her close and brought her back to the place that she was truly safe in our home.
That sounds like us does it not. During the storms of life we hide away in the place we think is our safe space, our comfort zone, when God has something more for us. We fail to ask Him instructions of what to do instead we choose to do things that we think is the right way of doing it or how we have always done things. We are content just to have the touch of His Hand. When He wants to hold us in His arms. We settle for the less than instead for the fullness of all He has to offer.