Are You Marble or Sandpaper?

You were secure in your wickedness, you said, "No one sees me." Your wisdom and knowledge led you astray. You said to yourself, "I exist, and there is no one else." But disaster will happen to you; and you will not know how to avert it. And it will fall on you, and you will be unable to ward it off. Devastation will happen to you suddenly and unexpectedly. Isaiah 47:10,11

Deception can last quite a while, until the deceived is sated and then the deceiver will attack and destroy. The difficulty lies for the believer who is affected by this person and is having to stand, and stand, and stand, learning humility and grace.

David, the psalmist, suffered while he waited, so did Joseph, so did many others, yet God used the evil man for a purpose. Inflated as the evil man was in his pride, God used him to sand the Saint. He thought he was sooo great and invincible, but he was but sandpaper. When sandpaper has done its job, it is thrown into the rubbish and disposed of. The article that it sands becomes a prized possession, an item of beauty.

Have you ever visited the Vatican? The most marvellous marble statues and carving live there. I was amazed with the beauty. These were sanded and sanded and sanded and sanded.... Until a rough piece of rock became a work of intense beauty, one that lives on through the centuries, gazed at by many! I know which I would rather be, the marble and not the sandpaper. How about you?

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