Encouragement
Do you love to go to yard sales and dig through someone else’s junk? What are you looking for? Something that would be a treasure for you?
Or how about the people who use metal detectors? You see them walking around in the park, moving their machine over the ground. Are they looking for junk? Or do they hope to find some kind of gem?
In July every year, my husband and I have a tradition of awaking on a Saturday morning, going to Starbucks and then traveling to Richland to stroll through the “Arts in the Park”. We’ve gone enough years to know that the good stuff is usually on the north end (by the food of course) and as you travel south, you see the less desirable booths.
Last year, as we headed south across the street separating the two sections of the park, my husband asked if I really wanted to look around down there. He said, “It’s usually just junk”. I said, “You never know what you might find in the junk”.
Instantly, I had a mental picture of my life. It wasn’t pretty.
FOR YEARS, I WAS A GEM HIDDEN IN THE JUNK. I just didn’t know it.
Junk comes in all shapes and sizes. For some, it’s alcohol or drugs. Others get lost in the junk of greed. I was covered with the junk of religious oppression. The junk is not the issue. It’s the “gem” that matters.
The Bible has story after story of “gems” discovered in the junk. Here is just one.
Rahab was a prostitute in Jericho. The Bible first tells us about her in the book of Joshua. Joshua sent two spies to go look over the promised land. So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. Interesting place to stay.
We learn three things: Rahab is a prostitute, she lives in Jericho, and the spies go to a prostitute’s house while on the job.
Our society would reject her as having no value. But she protected the spies from the King by hiding them. (Joshua 2:1-4) She saved their lives.
Why would God use a prostitute? Because she had faith in Him. She believed and acted, even though acting put her life on the line. But she trusted God.
In James 2:25 it says, “In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?”
She was considered righteous.
If the story of Rahab ended there it would be a fantastic story, but that’s not the end. She is one of four women named in Matthew in the genealogy of Jesus. God's blessings come in surprising packages.
Rahab was a “gem” in the junk.
Are you covered with junk? God made you to be a “gem”.
It is painful to be made into a gem. There is grinding involved and cutting off of unnecessary attachments. Some of it is done by God. Parts of it, He expects us to do ourselves. It can be very scary. As God has done His work on me, there have been many times I just wanted to give up. I told Him He had more faith in me than I did. But if we want to be a jewel worthy of shining for God, we must go through the refining process.
Do you know you are a “gem”? Or are you still hidden in some junk?
Just as you dig through the tables piled with other people’s junk when you go to a yard sale, God is digging through the junk that is covering you………trying to reach you………to let you know you are a brilliantly shining gem he wants to use.
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God always sees the "gem" in us no matter how much 'trash' there is around us. Thanks for sharing this. GOD BLESS YOU
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