Today we’re sharing a beautiful guest devotional by our friend Sis. Allison Cox. If you’re going through a season of pressure in your life, you do not want to miss this article! Please enjoy, and feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.
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In my late teens, my parents divorced. I remember those were some of the hardest years, as anyone who has been through a divorce can testify. There seemed just to be an insurmountable amount of PRESSURE! I felt like everything I’d ever known was falling apart, and for all good and evident reasons, it was.
One day while coming home from college, I remember feeling so depressed, hurting and just alone. I pulled into the driveway and sat in my car, not wanting to go inside my house. I laid my head on the steering wheel and started to cry. I told God that I just couldn’t take it anymore. The pressure, the confusion, the pain was too great.
An instant response, the verse from this song came to mind:
It’s only through pressure that a diamond is formed
And that is when it reaches its purest form
So when the pressures come, Lord
Please help me to see
That through it all, Your hand will make
A diamond out of me
In the middle of my upset, I cried out, “But God! I can’t take this pressure! Please let me just be a rock! A plain old rock!”
As soon as I uttered those words, the reply came–that still small voice.
“But a rock has no value in my kingdom.”
The simple statement shook me to my core. I picked up my head and looked in my driveway that was full of gravel, and…rocks. I looked at the road I had taken to get home, and saw more…rocks. Rocks, everywhere. No one running or fighting to pick them up. They were so abundant that they had little to no value.
Diamonds, however, are incredibly valuable–from thousands of dollars to even millions of dollars, and some are literally priceless. And notice, diamonds don’t usually litter the streets, and they definitely aren’t used as pavement!
A little bit of research revealed three unique things about the process in which diamonds are formed:
high temperature–combined with
high pressure–over a space of
anywhere from 1 to 3 BILLION years
Does that sound like your life? Is the heat turned up? More pressure than it seems like you can bear? Do you feel like God’s plan for your life is taking forever?
Trust Him.
Let the pressure create a stronger desire to live for Him and to be something in His kingdom.
Let the fire burn impurities out of you.
Let this season of time teach you to be faithful. He hasn’t forgotten about you.
Don’t rush the process; don’t cave under the pressure. He’s got a plan for your life that is bigger than you could ever imagine. He wants to use you to be a diamond in His kingdom and make you so much more precious than any ordinary rock.
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
If you feel like you’re in the trial of a lifetime, take comfort. Know that through the process, God’s gonna make a diamond out of you!