Tempering is a process where you test for weakness to insure strength. In his book “The Fatherhood Principle” Myles Munroe talks about how the Greeks and Romans used this tempering process to make swords for battle. They would take a piece of steel and heat it in the fire until it got bright red and you could actually see inside of the metal. If you saw black spots this meant that the molecules where spread too far apart which would result in a weak spot in the sword. When they found a black spot they would beat the sword with a hammer on an anvil until the spot was no longer there, then they would quench it in water. This quench process makes the metal hard. They would then reheat the sword and look for other black spots. If they found more spots they would repeat the process until there was no more weakness found in the sword. An untempered sword might look nice, but it’s useless. Battle ready swords have been tempered and proved strong.
This tempering process in life is achieved through trials. Trials heat up your belief, confidence, and faith and allow the weak spots to be seen. These weak spots are doubt, unbelief, fear, worry and identity crisis. These don’t surface to discourage or break you, they surface so you can uproot them and replace them with strength so that you don’t break! This is how you become someone who is battle ready. This is why in James 1:2-4 he says,
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
Perseverance is your commitment to hold on when you feel like letting go; to keep moving forward when you want to turn around; your willingness to exercise discipline in the midst of the temptation to not. It’s this process that produces maturity and completeness so you lack nothing.
The tempering process makes you battle ready which means you have the strength to dominate in the battle instead of being shattered. Don’t fear the tempering process. It’s this process that causes you to shed off unnecessary ideas, conclusions and beliefs that aren’t based on the truth. When you shed off everything that is unnecessary then what is necessary is all that remains. Then you are ready for the real battle!