Refiner

Maverick City Music's “Refiner” is a prayer to be changed by fire. It opens with an invitation: “If the altar's where You meet us, take me there. If You're looking for an offering, it's right here, my life is here.” The singer offers to be “a living sacrifice,” and the pre-chorus names God as “a fire, the refiner,” and says, “I wanna be consumed.”

The chorus is direct about what is wanted: “I wanna be tried by fire, purified, You take whatever You desire, Lord, here's my life.” The second verse shifts to the room, asking that God's glory “let it fall, we want it all” and calls for his fire to fill the place and “set it ablaze.” Personal petitions return at the end: “Clean my hands, purify my heart, I wanna burn for You, only for You,” closing with “take my life as a sacrifice.” The song asks for the cost of holiness and does not soften it.

God as a refiner is Malachi 3:2-3. A living sacrifice is Romans 12:1, and clean hands and a pure heart echo Psalm 51:10 and Psalm 24:4.