Jewels

O storm-battered city, troubled and desolate! 

 I will rebuild you on a foundation of sapphires

 and make the walls of your houses from precious jewels. 

 I will make your towers of sparkling rubies 

and your gates and walls of shining gems.

Isaiah 54:11-12 (NLT)

God builds his houses of precious and beautiful jewels.  It takes fire, heat, darkness and pressure to create gemstones. And then they have to be cut and tumbled and polished and fired again to make the beautiful jewel ready to be set.  All the fire and darkness and pressure and tumbling that we go through in this life is producing for us an eternal house made of precious and beautiful stones.  He is working in us through every trial and struggle to create in us beautiful, clear and bright jewels that will shine forever.

God, I thank you for the hard times and the struggles because I know they are accomplishing your work and creating in me a beautiful house made of costly and precious jewels.  You see the end from the beginning, so I entrust myself into your care.

 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. 

Yet they produce for us a glory

 that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!

2 Cor 4:17 (NLT)

And you are living stones that God

 is building into his spiritual temple.

1 Peter 2:5 (NLT)