Welcome back to our continuing conversation on
Refine for a Purpose. In our last conversation,
we asked a difficult question. Can God trust
your integrity? We discovered that integrity
is not simply about never failing. Integrity
is revealed when our character is tested, when
nobody is watching, when temptation comes, when
we are angry, when we are hurt, when we have
authority, when compromise would be easier. and
we discovered that God may not only be preparing
the blessing, God may be preparing us for the
weight of the blessing, but today I want us to
go one step further. Because integrity usually
does not collapse in one moment. There is often
something that happens first. In an earlier season
of Pamoja Ministry, we had a conversation called,
When the Strong Get Tired, and we discovered
something important. Strong people can become
tired. Faithful people can become discouraged.
Disciplined people can become vulnerable. People
who have survived enormous battles can still
experience moments when their defenses are down.
But people rarely collapse simply because they
became tired. Usually something happens between
weariness and collapse. A boundary moves. A compromise
is justified. An attitude is excused. A warning
is ignored. A conviction is silenced. Something
you once resisted. You begin entertaining. Something
you once confessed, you begin defending. Something
you once considered dangerous, you begin believing
you can control. And slowly, a crack develops.
The problem with a crack is that initially, the
structure can still look strong. The building
is still standing. The ministry is still functioning.
The marriage is still together. The career is
still progressing. The person is still preaching,
still working, still leading. still smiling,
still posting, still praying. From the outside,
everything may appear intact. But somewhere beneath
the surface, something is cracking. And that
is what makes this conversation so important.
Because collapse rarely begins on the day everybody
sees it. Usually something has been cracking
quietly for a long time. And perhaps one of God's
greatest acts of mercy is allowing you to see
the crack while there is still time to repair
it. So today, our continuing conversation on
refine for purpose is the crack before the collapse.
What are the small compromises we keep ignoring?
What attitudes have we started excusing? What
boundaries have we slowly moved? What habits
are growing where nobody can see them? What warning
signs have we dismissed? What conviction from
the Holy Spirit have we repeatedly silenced?
Because maybe God is not exposing the crack to
embarrass you. Maybe he is exposing it to save
what the crack could eventually destroy. And
listen carefully, the collapse is public. The
crack is often private. When a building collapses,
everybody sees the collapse. But engineers may
later discover that the structural problem existed
long before the building came down. Maybe there
was corrosion. Maybe there was repeated stress.
Maybe there was a fracture. Maybe something had
been weakening beneath the surface. The collapse
happened suddenly. The deterioration didn't.
And sometimes human character works the same
way. We see someone fall and say, how did this
happen? But perhaps the better question is, when
did the crack begin? Because the visible failure
may have happened today. But the boundary started
moving months ago. The affair became public today.
But emotional boundaries may have been disappearing
long before. The angry explosion happened today.
But bitterness may have been accumulating for
years. The financial scandal became public today.
But entitlement may have been growing privately
for a long time. The ministry collapsed today.
But accountability may have disappeared years
earlier. The marriage broke today, but communication
may have been dying quietly for a long time.
The person walked away from God today, but prayer
had been disappearing, the word had been neglected,
conviction had been resisted, and slowly the
distance grew. The collapse gets the attention,
but God was speaking at the crack. James explains
something similar about temptation. James 1 .14
-15 teaches that a person is tempted when drawn
away by his own desire and enticed. Then desire
conceives. Then sin is born. And when sin is
fully grown, it produces death. Notice the progression.
Desire, enticement, conception, sin, growth,
death. There is a process. We often focus on
the final stage. God is concerned about what
is happening at the beginning. Because if you
address the crack early enough, perhaps you never
have to experience the collapse. And this is
why we cannot despise conviction. Conviction
is an early warning system. There are moments
when the Holy Spirit makes you uncomfortable.
You said something and afterward something inside
you said that wasn't right. You entered a conversation
and something told you, you shouldn't be here.
You started becoming too close to someone. and
something inside you said, this boundary is becoming
dangerous. You made a financial decision and
felt this isn't honest. You responded in anger
and knew immediately that wasn't the person God
is calling me to become. You started hiding something,
deleting something, explaining something, justifying
something. And deep inside, you knew sometimes
that discomfort is not condemnation. Sometimes
it is protection. The Holy Spirit is saying,
look at the crack, not because God wants to humiliate
you, because he knows where the crack can lead.
One of the most dangerous things we can do is
repeatedly silence what once convicted us, because
there is a progression that should concern every
believer. First, something bothers you, then
you explain it, then you justify it, then you
repeat it. then you normalize it, and eventually,
you defend it. What once required an apology
becomes part of your personality. What once brought
conviction becomes something you now call, that's
just who I am. Be careful, because refinement
requires us to remain sensitive to correction.
And sometimes the evidence of spiritual maturity
is not that conviction disappears, it is that
we respond to conviction faster. There is a small
verse in Song of Solomon 2 .15 that says, catch
for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin
the vineyards. The little foxes, not the enormous
animals, the little ones. Because sometimes what
destroys something valuable begins small. A little
compromise. A little dishonesty. A little flirtation.
A little bitterness. A little pride. A little
secret. A little resentment. A little habit.
A little boundary moved. A little prayer life
neglected. And because it looks small, we tolerate
it. But small does not mean harmless. Little
compromises can create large consequences. Look
at Samson. People often remember Samson's collapse
as the moment Delilah had his haircut. But Samson's
problem did not begin with the haircut. Long
before Delilah, Samson had been playing with
boundaries. He repeatedly moved toward things
that should have made him cautious. He became
comfortable living close to compromise. And eventually,
he began telling Delilah pieces of the truth.
Closer, closer, closer. Until Judges 16 says
that he told her everything. That is how boundaries
often disappear. Not always through one enormous
decision. Sometimes through inches, one conversation,
one message, one meeting, one justification,
one exception, one more time. And eventually,
you look backward and realize, I am standing
somewhere I once promised myself I would never
go. That is the danger of moving boundaries slowly.
If somebody asked you on the first day to cross
the final line, you might say, absolutely not.
But compromise rarely begins by asking for everything.
It asks for something small, and then something
smaller becomes normal. And once that becomes
normal, it asks for something more. Until eventually,
the abnormal becomes familiar. This is why scripture
warns in 1 Corinthians 10 -12, Let him that thinketh,
he standeth take heed, lest he fall. The danger
is not strength. The danger is believing strength
makes you immune. And this takes us back to when
the strong get tired. Sometimes strong people
become especially vulnerable because everyone
depends on them. They are always carrying, always
solving, always helping, always leading, always
producing. And because everybody sees their strength,
Nobody asks whether they are becoming depleted.
Sometimes, they don't even ask themselves. And
when exhaustion combines with isolation, disappointment,
unresolved pain, temptation, and opportunity,
the crack can grow quickly. This is why rest
is spiritual. Accountability is spiritual. Boundaries
are spiritual. Honest conversations are spiritual.
Saying, I need help can be spiritual maturity.
Because you don't have to wait until you collapse
to admit that something is weakening. Strong
people still need guardrails. Think about David.
Second Samuel 11 begins with an interesting detail.
It was the season when kings went out to war,
but David remained in Jerusalem. One evening
he got up from his bed and walked on the roof,
and there he saw Bathsheba. Now David's entire
collapse cannot be reduced to one detail, but
scripture deliberately gives us the setting.
David was not where we might have expected the
king to be. Then he saw. Then he inquired. Then
he sent. Then he took. Again, progression. Saw.
Inquired. Sent. Took. There were multiple moments
where the process could have stopped, and that
is important. Because sometimes we talk about
temptation as though there is only one moment
of decision. Often there are many. God gives
us exits, a moment to stop, a moment to reconsider,
a moment to listen, a moment to call somebody,
a moment to leave, a moment to confess, a moment
to say, this is going too far. The question is
whether we recognize the exit before the crack
becomes a collapse. And then look at Peter. Before
Peter denied Jesus, Jesus warned him. Luke 22
records Jesus telling Peter that Satan desired
to sift him like wheat. Peter responded confidently.
He believed he was ready. He believed he was
strong. He believed he could handle the pressure.
But Jesus saw something Peter could not yet see.
That is another form of mercy. The warning before
the failure. Sometimes God sends a scripture.
Sometimes a sermon. Sometimes a spouse, sometimes
a friend, sometimes a mentor, sometimes a leader,
sometimes a conversation, sometimes an uncomfortable
feeling you cannot shake. And because we don't
like the message, we become angry at the messenger.
But what if the warning is mercy? What if God
is trying to interrupt something before it grows?
Proverbs tells us that wounds from a faithful
friend can be trusted. Sometimes somebody who
loves you enough to make you uncomfortable is
more valuable than somebody who keeps you comfortable
while you are drifting. And this is where pride
becomes dangerous. Pride doesn't only say, I
am better than everybody. Sometimes pride says,
nobody can tell me anything. Nobody can correct
me. Nobody understands me. Nobody knows what
I've been through. I know what I'm doing. I can
handle it. I can stop whenever I want. I'm not
going that far. It won't happen to me. Those
sentences should frighten us because confidence
without accountability can become blindness.
And maybe this is why God allows certain uncomfortable
moments during the refining process. He is confronting
us while there is still time. He is saying, look
at this. Look at your anger. Look at your pride.
Look at your relationship with money. Look at
your private conversations Look at your boundaries
Look at the way you speak to your spouse Look
at the way you treat people beneath your authority
Look at what you are watching Look at what you
are hiding Look at what you keep deleting Look
at the resentment you keep feeding Look at what
you have stopped praying about because you already
know what I would tell you not to shame you,
to save you. Because maybe the greatest miracle
is not always God rebuilding your life after
collapse. Maybe sometimes the miracle is God
showing you the crack early enough that collapse
never has to happen. And this requires humility.
Don't defend what God is trying to remove. This
is difficult. Because when God touches something
we have become attached to, we immediately begin
explaining. Everybody does it. It's not that
serious. You don't understand. I deserve this.
I've been through a lot. I'm still a good person.
And perhaps all of that may contain pieces of
truth, but none of it answers the real question.
What is the Holy Spirit saying? Because refinement
is not about comparing yourself with everybody
else. The refiner is looking at what does not
belong in you. There may be something another
person can handle. that you cannot. There may
be a relationship that has become unhealthy for
you. There may be an environment that awakens
something dangerous in you. There may be access
you need to restrict. There may be a conversation
you need to stop. There may be a habit you need
to confront. There may be an apology you need
to make. There may be accountability you need
to restore. And sometimes obedience looks very
practical. Delete the number. Leave the conversation.
Change the routine. Stop going there. Tell somebody
the truth. Ask for help. Put the boundary back.
Rest. Pray. Return to scripture. Return to community.
Return to God. Don't wait for catastrophe to
become serious about something God has already
been whispering about, because the crack is easier
to repair than the collapse. But there is something
else I want us to understand. The crack does
not mean the structure is worthless. If an engineer
discovers a crack in a building, the purpose
of inspection is not automatically to demolish
the building. The first question is, can it be
repaired? Can it be reinforced? Can the pressure
be relieved? Can what has weakened be strengthened?
And perhaps somebody needs to hear that spiritually.
God showing you weakness does not mean God has
abandoned you. God correcting your character
does not mean he has canceled your purpose. God
revealing something ugly inside you does not
mean there is nothing beautiful he can still
produce through you. Sometimes revelation is
the beginning of restoration. David's sin was
exposed. Peter's weakness was exposed. Moses'
anger was exposed. Jacob's character was confronted,
and God dealt with them, sometimes painfully,
sometimes through consequences, sometimes through
discipline. But exposure did not automatically
mean abandonment. And this prepares us for something
we need to understand in our next conversation.
Because when God reveals the crack, what comes
next may feel uncomfortable. Correction. Discipline.
Consequences. Conviction. And sometimes we interpret
all of those things as rejection. But scripture
teaches something very different. Hebrews tells
us that the Lord disciplines those he loves.
So perhaps the correction you are resisting is
not evidence that God has walked away. Perhaps
it is evidence that God refuses to leave you
the way you are. And that will bring us to our
next continuing conversation. When God corrects
the person he loves, correction is not rejection.
But before we get there, I want you to sit with
this question. What crack has God been showing
me? Not your spouse's crack. Not your friend's
crack. Not your pastor's crack. Not your co -worker's
crack. Not the person you saw on social media.
Yours. What have you been excusing? What boundary
has moved? What conviction have you silenced?
What warning have you dismissed? What habit has
become stronger? What attitude have you started
defending? What are you hiding? What have you
stopped bringing before God? Maybe this conversation
itself is part of God's mercy. Maybe God is allowing
you to see something while there is still time
to address it. Don't run from the light. Don't
defend the crack. Don't cover what God wants
to heal. Bring it to Him. Repent where repentance
is necessary. Repair what can be repaired. Restore
the boundary. receive accountability, ask for
help, return to prayer, return to the word, return
to obedience. Because collapse does not have
to become your testimony. Maybe your testimony
can be, God showed me the crack and I listen.
Maybe years from now, you will look backward
and realize that the uncomfortable conviction
you felt in this season was actually God's protection
over your marriage. Protection over your family.
Protection over your ministry. Protection over
your career. Protection over your calling. Protection
over your future. Protection over your life.
Because sometimes God's mercy does not look like
ignoring the crack. Sometimes God's mercy looks
like revealing it. You are being refined. Not
humiliated. Not discarded. Not abandoned. Refined.
And perhaps God is showing you what must be repaired
because He knows what He is preparing you to
carry. Don't waste the warning. Don't silence
the conviction. Don't ignore the crack. Let God
refine it now before the crack becomes the collapse.
You are being refined for a purpose.