Diamond Dust

January 2

Adversity is the diamond dust with which heaven polishes its jewels. Robert Leighton

Luster and brilliance are not the innate characteristics of jewels. In their natural state, the finest of gems appear dull and rough. They can easily be overlooked as they appear before they are transformed by the hand of a master craftsman. In fact, it takes a trained eye to recognize the valuable treasure hidden among the ordinary rocks in which they are found.

In their natural state, the most precious stones will not be found among the crown jewels of England or in the coffers of the wealthy. Until they are placed into the hands of a master jeweler, their intrinsic beauty will remain undiscovered. Man is much like that. In his natural state he evidences little worth. Whatever beauty is within him remains undiscovered until the Lord, the Master Jeweler, plies His skill upon him.

One man who will forever stand as "Exhibit A" of the power of God's workmanship upon a life is John Newton, author of the hymn "Amazing Grace." Newton's story is well known. His father was a seaman so he naturally gravitated toward the adventure of the sea. After working for a while in a respectable avenue of the seafaring trade, he asked to be transferred to a slave ship. Newton witnessed and assented to the abuse to which his human cargo was subjected. It didn't touch his heart until he encountered an horrific storm that he knew would plunge the ship and all its cargo into the churning ocean. At that point, although he disdained religion, he cried out, "God, save us!" The storm abated and the ship was safe. Alone in his cabin, Newton pondered the events he had just encountered and laid his life at the feet of Jesus. Forever after that, he counted the day, May 10, as the day of his rebirth.

Although we all have a 'sordid past' from which we must be delivered, Newton's included extreme cruelty and abuse to fellow human beings, but the Lord transformed him through his trial from a man who had only faint reflections of youthful religious training into a minister of the gospel and the author of some of our most memorable hymns. God used adversity to first cause Newton to cry out for mercy then remind him of the Lord he had once known and to cause him to turn to Jesus at the point of his helplessness. Though his heart was pliable in the hands of the Christ, he didn't immediately realize his goal of service to the Kingdom of the Lord. Newton educated himself in the religious languages of the day, studied the Word and taught himself to listen to and follow after Jesus. As HE did with John Newton, so the unchanging Christ will use the adversity we face to bring us into a place of devotion and service to the Kingdom of God.

As HE did with John Newton, HE will use the trials we face to become the tools in His hand that will cut and polish us into beautiful gems that reflect His craftsmanship. He will use the worst trials we face as HE used Newton's violent storm at sea as the diamond dust that elicits the utmost glory from the work He is doing in us. Though the cutting and polishing do not seem pleasant at the time, the trials we face are designed to bring us to the place where we, like John Newton, will recognize our total helplessness and cause us to submit to the One who is able to deliver us. In so doing, He elicits from us a richer, fuller, more complete cooperation than we have ever yet given to Him. Through that cooperation, HE brings us to the place of total surrender, total service and total joy that HE desires us to have. Does He want His people to fall into the wretchedness of sin that Newton experienced? No, but He knows our frame and He has made provision for it.

The reality is that there are probably hundreds of slave boat captains whose names we will never know. Newton was not alone in his depth of depravity. But we know his name because he found the Christ and experienced His mercy because of all he suffered. Jesus would have us to be like him in that regard...that all we suffer because of our sin will be, as was Newton's, turned around for good, according to God’s unfailing Word, "All things work together for good to those who love the Lord, to they who are the called according to His promise," Romans 8:28.

If that beautiful truth came to glorious fulfillment in John Newton, we know we may claim it, too. God will work all our trials together for our good and His glory. We may be sure that the worst storm of our life simply is His opportunity to demonstrate His power to rescue us when it has completed its diamond-dust work of bringing us to the luster of the jewel He fashioned us to be.