Sharp chiselling!',

Back to Treasures from J.R. Miller

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"I have refined you in the furnace of affliction." Isaiah 48:10

We were stones in the quarry. When Christ saved us — we were cut from the great mass of rock. But we were yet rough and unshapely; not fit for heaven. Before we can be ready for our place in the heavenly temple — we must be hewn and shaped. The hammer must do its work — breaking off the roughness's. The chisel must be used — carving and polishing our lives into beauty. This work is done in the many processes of life. Every sinful thing, every fault in our character — is a rough place in the stone, which must be chiselled off. All the crooked lines must be straightened. Our lives must be cut and hewn — until they conform to the perfect standard of divine truth.

Quarry-work is not always pleasant. If stones had hearts and sensibilities — they would cry out in sore pain as they feel the hammer strokes and the deep cutting of the chisel. Yet the workman must not heed their cries, and withdraw his hand, else they would at last be thrown aside as worthless blocks, never to be built into the beautiful temple.

We are not stones; we have hearts and sensibilities, and we do cry out oft-times, as the hammer smites away the roughness's in our character! But we must yield to the painful work and let it go on, or we shall never have our place as living stones in Christ's beautiful temple. We must not wince under the sharp chiselling  of sorrow and affliction.

"I have refined you in the furnace of affliction." Isaiah 48:10