A Jewel That Reflects His Glory

March 4

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

The God who loves you does indeed desire that you become the most beautiful of His people. Does He desire the same for everyone who professes to love Him? Of course He does. He would have each of us to be His servants and handmaidens who reflect the loveliness of Christ. As the Word assures us, "He is no respecter of persons," Acts 10:34, but that does not negate the reality of His one-on-one care and concern for each individual. Yes, Jesus loves us all. Yes, Jesus wants each believer to appropriate the entirety of the wealth of promises He has woven so beautifully throughout His glorious book, but He also wants His best for the one—you.

Jesus loves us collectively. That is why the Bible tells us that "whosoever will may come and drink from the River of Life freely," Revelation 22:17. His is not a select club for a chosen few. His is an open-armed invitation to the masses! Any one or all of us may choose to lay our sins at His feet or to bear our transgression ourselves. Any one or all of us may accept the forgiveness He extended from the cross when He said, "Father, forgive them; they know not what they do," Luke 23:34, or we can refuse His grace, we can turn our backs on His forgiveness for our sins.

Jesus said that if we are to be forgiven, we must first forgive those who have offended us (see Luke 6:37). Until we do that one essential thing, we are dead in our trespasses and sins. Does He desire that everyone empty himself of the vitriolic bitterness that causes him to cling to offense? Indeed He does. Jesus wants it so much that He is Himself our example for doing so! Yet to forgive or to cling to offense is each man's choice to make.

Each of us must allow the adversity of our lives to make us more like Jesus. Each of us must allow the slings and arrows that come against us to refine us as good soldiers in the Army of the Lord. Each of us must allow the negative experiences we incur to establish us in the way of Christ who bears all adversity in our behalf when we accept His invitation to, "Cast all your cares upon Me, for I care for you," I Peter 5:7.

Just as we need not carry our sin, neither need we carry our worries. Jesus bears it all in our behalf. Jesus gives us release from every aspect of life's trials and failures. If we will allow Him to do so, the Master Jeweler will use the adversity of our lives as the diamond dust to polish the jewel that we are to Him into glorious radiance! He will do that for everyone who names His name. He will do it for you. He will do it for your enemies. When it happens in each of you individually, you will each become the lovely adornment He desires you to be—you will become a jewel that reflects Heaven's glory.