The Diamond Cutter
Originally written November 15, 2017 by Brigitte Renée Shewbridge:
On November 2, 2011 I had a revelation of Jesus and committed my life to Him. I prayed a prayer in my little white Toyota Yaris, and I prayed with a faith KNOWING that God heard my cry. My words were simple: “Okay, I believe in You! Now change me!” I was desperate. I came to Him in a spiritually battered and abused state. In my own eyes, I was a mess.
It’s now 6 years later and I work at Rick Bonfim Ministries, the very ministry that God used to reach my heart. A LOT has happened between then and now. One day, I looked down at the carpet in my office and saw a little stone that looked like a diamond. It wasn’t a real diamond (although that would’ve been awesome). But as I looked at it I remembered that around the time I gave my life to Christ, a man had given me a word from God saying, “You are precious to God. Your heart is like a diamond to Him.” At the time I could not understand how this could be true. How could I be that special? But my heart believed and something broke inside me that day. God is so kind. (Romans 2:4) As I looked at this little rhinestone from my office floor I heard God say, “You’re still my diamond, precious to my heart.”
Diamond is the hardest natural substance on Earth! Wow! It’s both beautiful and strong. But the process of yielding the diamond is both delicate and time consuming. A diamond cutter must be patient. And, I’d argue, so must the diamond! The diamond cutter is committed to seeking out and yielding the largest diamond with the highest clarity from within the rough crystal. And every diamond is completely unique and must be approached by the cutter as such. At the end of the process, which can take several hours or even weeks, the worth of the stone is determined by size, clarity, color, brilliance, and several other factors.
So God sees within us a worth that is measured by the price He paid to purchase us back: His very Son. (John 3:16) When we come to The Diamond Cutter, we come as rough stones with many rough edges. And day-by-day He is conforming us to the image of His Son, Who is perfection. There are going to be many instruments that God uses to yield the diamond within us. And each one of His children will be pursued and worked on by God in a unique way, according to what He determines necessary. (As a side note, only diamond can cut diamond, which reminds me of iron sharpening iron in Proverbs 27:17.) The process may be downright painful. And as The Diamond Cutter is committed to finish the process as it says in Philippians 1:6, “being confident of this, that He Who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus“, so we, as the diamonds being cut and polished, must be committed to allowing The Cutter to finish His work (which will be good: Romans 8:28 and Jeremiah 29:11). Matthew 24:13 states, “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” And James 1:12 says, “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.” Guess what? The top of a diamond is called the “crown”! When the diamond endures until the end it receives a crown! And that is what we will receive.
But on that glorious day, we will cast every crown before the feet of Jesus and along with the four and twenty elders in Revelation 4 we will say, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”
Endure, and let The Diamond Cutter remove the rough edges, the things that aren’t of Him. Then you will truly reflect His light and His glory! (Matthew 13:43) The process may take a lifetime, but our great reward will be Him, and we will be like Him. “But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” 1 John 3:2
One Comment
Ben
Thanks for sharing.