Do you hear hammers and chisels?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” John 15:1-2

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

When Solomon built his temple, he employed eighty thousand stonecutters. They chipped and shaped those stones—but not at the temple site. They did that work way out in the stone quarry before bringing them to the temple mount. Why? Because Solomon didn’t want the sound of the hammers and chisels heard on the temple mount.

In the same way, you are part of the living stones of His temple and God is shaping you here—in the “quarry” of this earth.

Part of your shaping takes the form of persecution. So be prepared for that. Don’t see your persecutors as enemies, but as God’s stonecutters at work.

ACTION POINT:

Next time someone reviles you, say “Thank God, another stonecutter.” God is shaping you to be what you ought to be.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers