Shining for God’s Glory
by Tanya Person
Recently I had the opportunity to walk on the beach in Scotland. It was a great time of enjoying God’s creation. As I walked, I started looking at the shells on the beach. Suddenly I saw what looked like a beautiful turquoise coloured piece of glass. I picked it up and found that it was just a normal piece of clear glass that was worn smooth by the sea and sand. When it was in the sand, it caught the sun’s light and reflected it back and was beautiful and a unique colour. Outside of that setting, it was very plain.
This made me think of how God puts us in a place to reflect His glory. I thought of Proverbs 25:11 which says, ‘A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver’. Although the verse is talking about having the right word for someone, it seems to me that it’s also saying that it’s important to be in the right setting.
As I read today’s main scripture verse, I thought about all the things that piece of glass had gone through. It was once a part of something else, probably a glass bottle. It had been broken, discarded, tossed about by the sea and rubbed by the sand. But in God’s kindness, He put that piece of glass in just the right place to catch the sun’s reflection and catch my eye with the beauty of it. He spoke to me through that seemingly meaningless little piece of glass.
Each of us goes through times of suffering in our lives. We can fight against the hard times and become bitter, or we can allow God to polish us through these circumstances, and allow Him to put us in a place where we can shine for Him and then He can use us to speak to someone passing by.
Let’s make a choice today to persevere through suffering, and let God polish us and make us beautiful, to reflect His glory in the right setting.
Prayer: Lord, help me to persevere through suffering until I come to the place where I can be set on a firm foundation and reflect Your glory to the world. Help me to have the word, fitly spoken, that will build up and encourage those around me. Thank You that You have called us by Your kindness to share in Your glory, through Christ Jesus. Amen.
Tanya Person Tanya and her husband, Jim, were missionaries to Hungary for over 18 years. They have worked with Ellel since 2005. After serving in various positions with Ellel in Central and Eastern Europe, God led them back to the United States, where they are now serving with the Ellel USA team. They have a passion to see leaders restored, the church discipled and walking in God’s fullness of life and freedom, and for mentoring the existing and developing team. Tanya also enjoys crocheting and knitting in her free time and has written some children’s picture books.
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