Shaped for His Purpose

我真惭愧因我知道, 总是保留自己.
虽然也曾受你铸造, 我却反抗又悖逆.
如今全心求你喜悦, 不惜任何代价.
你若欢喜并得荣耀, 我愿背负十字架.

I was just thinking of the lyrics of the Janurary anthem bridge and somehow I thought maybe we are like iron ores.

To produce iron, they slowly burned iron ore with wood in a clay-lined oven. The iron separated from the surrounding rock but never quite melted. Instead, it formed a crusty slag which was removed by hammering. This repeated heating and hammering process mixed oxygen with the iron oxide to produce iron, and removed the carbon from the metal. The result was nearly pure iron, easily shaped with hammers and tongs but too soft to take and keep a good edge. Because the metal was shaped, or wrought, by hammering, it came to be called wrought iron.

Some part of your life is hammered off and you are heated up so that you will be refined and become pure after the process. It is a repeated process, so it will go on and on. So will the suffering and pain. Our hearts soften, becoming more attuned and aligned to Him. Only then do we realize: we are being shaped - shaped for the purpose of glorifying His name.