New Year Gold Panning Goal

Spiritual Gold-Panning

Back in 1849, there was a gold rush in California, and droves of people from every walk of life thronged to the West to get their stake in for a claim. The self-sacrifice, peril, and even death that individuals were willing to encounter in order to dig up some glittering riches were phenomenal. Often they would have to dig in unsafe conditions through rock, storm, or heat with very little to show for it. Many times bandits, murderers, and other greedy individuals would attack just to get what someone else had worked so hard to unearth. Panning gold was hard, dirty, and often mucky work, yet men gave their lives in the attempt to get rich quick.

How much more should God’s children be all fired up about digging and panning for the spiritual gold in fellow believers? So often many of the people who are called by Christ’s name spend more time slandering, assuming, and gossiping than they spend lifting up the golden nuggets in others. In fact, many do not even bother looking for gold nuggets in others—they are too busy looking for the rocks, mud, and boulders to hurl at another.

The Master’s desire for His children is that we pan for gold in one another with the mind of Christ within us. Though there are individuals who have been through things we cannot understand, or their pain is something we cannot comprehend, yet beneath it all lies buried gold which the Master wants to refine. He asks that we never give up on one another and never write someone off as a useless claim.

Everyone has a value to God which surpasses the worth of all the gold in the world. Because He died for each and every one, we are all equally valuable regardless of what circumstances, pain, or abuse have shaped us. Even these anguishing tools can be used by the Savior to refine the gold or increase its value as He sees best. Digging for the gold in our brother or sister can be a blessed experience when we are armed with the love of God that shines for His glory, and view every potential claim through the goggles of Christ!

Prayer: Lord, help me to never give up on anyone no matter what they have been through or how hard the digging may be. Empower me with Your love and the eternal vision of how You view each person and claim. Amen. 

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