Passage Read: Malachi 1-4
Meditation Verses: 3:1-3
Thought
The Lord holds many things against His priests; they are failing in their duties, lowering their expectations on the people and their sacrifices, and they themselves are not holding the Lord in high regard. So the Lord is against His priests and His people. He is bringing trouble and distress on them to bring them to their senses and repentance. Then He reminds them that the day is coming when the Savior they seek will appear, but when He appears, it will not be a glad and delightful day, but it will be a good day. Because He will come like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap to cleanse the priests, so they they may offer right sacrifices. It is a frightening day, but the end result is not destruction for those who are cleansed but correction and continued service—salvation! Correction and cleansing is not a joy-filled process, but it brings salvation, and that is good.
Application
It is so natural for me to fear correction, because I think it means rejection. But correction is actually for restoration. It is to keep me around, rather than to cast me aside. It is when I refuse correction that I endanger my standing, whether in school or at work or in God. Everything in Him is focused on my growth in righteousness and purification, so that I can remain in Him. But if I recoil from His correction, refuse it and even become embittered against it, I'm the one working for my destruction. The truth is, the further I am from His righteous likeness, the more rebuke and correction I need, so yes, the amount of work He needs to do in me is frightening. But the more humble and receptive I am to His retraining, the gentler He can be towards me in that retraining.