Some things are simply meant to sharpen you.

 

There was something in that dreaded place that you needed to learn. Yet, at times we resist the lessons, don’t we?

 

We decide that we made a wrong move or blame others for our misery but the truth is you were on the Potter’s Wheel.

 

Sharpening is a chiseling and at times we’re placed into a hot fire to be molded. If we’re wise we will get all we can from that place.

 

I fear many of us overlook treasures and classroom experiences with a resentment and bitterness instead of a new found wisdom.

 

There’s nothing worse than a pained place that yields absolutely nothing because until we own it all, we will travel around that mountain again and again.

 

The sharpening place was meant to get you honest before God where you drop the facade of religion and see clearly your needs. Where Jesus lovingly, yet firmly, exposes matters of the heart that need tending. He sees what’s lodged deep in that heart of yours so covering it up is not wise in the least. Intimacy is built in the place of raw honesty.

 

You’ll do one of two things: yield to the test or become angry at the lesson.

 

When we know for sure God is good, we understand that the sharpening is at times painful but valuable.

 

Valuable not just to us but to others because what is being etched on your heart is a forever lesson never to be forgotten but to be used for the sake of others.

 

The polished arrow is first stripped then bent to a needed straightness in the middle of the fire. Once the work is complete there is an oil poured over the arrow. Not until then is there the finishing of the feathers for good balance and the arrowHEAD to be sure Jesus has His rightful place.

 

It is like the polished arrow in Isaiah that we see being forged.

 

Isaiah 49:2

He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow; in his quiver he hid me away.

 

I must agree that some seasons seem particularly unreasonable to me. A bit more extreme than they had to be. Perhaps I would have liked a multiple choice test where I could pick the avenue I would trod.

 

Yet, the wise One of my heart knows fully what I need and what fits His dear plan for my life.

 

The picture is yet bigger from His view. So to His sovereign will I must indeed bow.

 

May every sharpening season mold us well into more of His likeness and make us more ready for that which is near to our doors.