DIAMONDS

2 Corinthians 4:8-10New International Version (NIV)

8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

So I have been going through a season of "JOB" where it seems like everything is going wrong, I have lost & lost & lost. People, (Death, divorce, Moving) homes, possessions, vehicles, jobs, money... I have been sick and afflicted and even got what would amount to BOILS -super painful 3rd degree type blisters that started on my left arm, and cover d my entire body from neck to toes! I had no medical insurance and it was excruciating for 2 MONTHS . Things have broken... pipes burst at my home, my cars have been breaking, you name it. Every day... it seems like there is a new struggle. Utilities shut off. No food in the house. A new area of oppression and pain and turmoil. I have had more emotional meltdowns and been more weary in the last couple of months than I have in a very long time. I am about to be homeless, me and my kids, AGAIN. (4th move in 4 years).

I have cried out to the Lord. "Why does this bad stuff keep happening to me?" 

And then I remember "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." 

I have cried out to the Lord. "I have not done anything to deserve this. It's too hard, it's too painful and it is nothing I asked for or consequences of my own choices." And then I remember "Are we to accept good from the Lord and not bad?" 

So I rather impatiently wait and wait and wait for a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. For the cloud to lift and for blessing to pour down.

 Today, as I was praying... I felt this tremendous pressure. I felt the weight of all that is going wrong and all that has gone wrong and all that I am afraid of and all the uncertainty and the fatigue... and I just felt like I was being crushed. I cried out to the Lord to remove this burden and to remove the pressure.

 It was then that I heard the Lord say "You are pressed but you will not be crushed." Very clearly I had this image of a large black piece of Charcoal/Coal jagged and powdery. It was about the size of a basketball. I watched it slowly begin to shrink. It was tightening up as though it was being squeezed. Bits of it began to fall and flake away. It just kept getting smaller under this tremendous invisible pressure. And as the last black flakes fell away what was left was a white, opaque jagged rock about the size of a baseball, nothing special to look at, but then I saw hands... Gods hands, held it gently and began to smooth away the edges and polish it. What it became when He was finished was this incredible diamond. It sparkled as He lifted it up out in front of him and then gently above his head  he carefully placed it into one of the tongs of his large gold crown. He said "you're the jewel in my crown. you are being pressed, but you will not break, you will not be crushed, you will be made strong and beautiful. If not in this life, in the next. You are the jewel in my crown. Keep your eyes fixed on me. Remain faithful and I will fulfill my promise to you.”
Luke 1:25 Blessed is she who believed Gods promises to her.” Joel 2:25a “I will restore to you the years the locusts have eaten.”