A Bar of Steel

A bar of steel worth $5,
   When wrought into horseshoes, is worth $10.
      If made into needles, it is worth $350.
         If made into penknife blades, it is worth $32,000.
            If made into springs for watches, it is worth $250,000.
     What a drilling and pounding that poor bar of steel must undergo before it is worth this!  You see, the more it is manipulated and the more it is hammered, then passed through the fire and beaten and pounded some more, then finally polished, the greater its value. 

     May this parable help us to be silent, still and long-suffering.  Those who suffer most are capable of yielding most.  It is through pain that God is getting the most out of us, for His glory and the blessing of others.  -- Selected

 

     Oh, give Thy servant patience to be still, and bear Thy will;
     Courage to venture wholly on the arm that will not harm;
     The wisdom that will never let me stray out of my way;
     The love that, now afflicting, knoweth best when I should rest.

 

     Life is very mysterious.  In fact, life would be unexplainable unless we believed that God is preparing us for scenes and ministries that lie beyond the veil of sense in the eternal world, where highly tempered spirits will be required for special service.

     "I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument." -- Isaiah 41:15

"The turning-lathe that has the sharpest knives produces the finest work."

 

Devotional from Streams in the Desert by Mrs. Charles Cowman, slightly revised.

This wonderful devotional from 1928 is back in print again!