discouraged

I was discouraged the other day (understatement). Here I am 52 years old and when I look back on my life I discovered that I keep making the same mistakes over and over and over again AND I am not who I always thought I was. I know, I wrote the little verse about 'I'm not who I want to be but I'm better than I was' . . . it is still discouraging.

Today I came across another note of encouragement:

I recently saw a documentary about the making of a Steinway piano. It traced the meticulous care that goes into crafting this fine instrument. From the cutting of trees until the piano appears on a showroom floor, it goes through countless delicate adjustments by skilled craftsmen. When the year-long process is complete, accomplished musicians play the piano and often comment on how the same rich sounds could never be produced by a computerized assembly line. The secret to the final product is the craftsman’s touch.


When the tabernacle was built, we see that God also valued the craftsman’s touch. He chose the craftsman Bezalel and said of him: “I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to design artistic works, to work in gold, in silver, in bronze, in cutting jewels for setting, in carving wood” (Ex. 31:3-5).

Today God dwells in the hearts of believers. Yet the call to craftsmanship has not ended. Now each individual believer is God’s “workmanship” (Eph. 2:10). The Master Craftsman is the Holy Spirit, who chips away at flaws in our character to make each of us like Jesus (Rom. 8:28-29). And as we yield to His workmanship, we will find that the secret to the final product is the Craftsman’s touch.



The Spirit is the Craftsman


Who makes us like the Son;


He’ll mold and shape our being


Until His work is done. —Sper


The Father gave us the Spirit to make us like His Son.

Dennis Fisher: Our Daily Bread is published and distributed in more than 40 languages worldwide by RBC Ministries