July 19 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Devotional

For many women wearing jewellery is part of personal adornment. Throughout the centuries women have worn rings, earrings and bracelets made of gemstones and precious metals. If you have ever stopped and looked at the display cases in a jewellery store you know that these things cost a considerable amount of money! The pearl is one such precious stone, which in many ways portrays the Christian life.

Pearls are found inside a living creature—an oyster. They are formed as the result of a fascinating biological process. Occasionally a foreign substance slips into the oyster’s inner body and cannot be expelled. It’s like the oyster gets a splinter. To protect itself from the foreign substance, the oyster covers the irritant with layers of the same substance that is used to create the shell. Over many years this forms a beautiful pearl.

As we travel our way into the future and ultimately to the New Jerusalem there is much to be learned from the formation of a pearl. Each of us is like a precious pearl in the eyes of the Lord. We are woven together like a beautiful necklace. But how do we get formed into what we are and shall be? The sufferings and tribulations that we experience are irritants that cause us considerable discomfort, but, as Paul reminds us in Romans 5, they are producing something beautiful. Those irritants are what make us into a precious pearl. And where are we formed? The church of the Lord Jesus is our “oyster.” In the community of God’s people we face perils and tribulation. Yet when those irritants are surrounded with the shell of the gospel they become something precious.

We can rejoice in the hope of eternal glory. When faced with tribulation and suffering, know that God is making a pearl. We can “glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.” (Romans 5:3) May that adjust our expectations and attitude. Our identity is not defined by what we achieve, but by what we have become—a precious pearl in the necklace of Christ.