Daily Devotional #1,845

There was a guy who was watching his neighbor, a sculptor, fashioning a figure out of this slab of rock in his  garage. He watched as the guy worked and asked him what he was working on. The sculptor said that he was  creating a lion. Over the next days the guy came back to watch this work in progress. And before he knew it  the figure of a lion was taking shape in this rock. The guy would take his hammer and chisel and chip off  pieces and after much work, there was this magnificent figure of a lion. The guy was fascinated by this  transformation and asked his friend how he created such a wonderful figure. The sculptor said “Well, I just  chipped away anything that didn’t look like a lion!” I love that story because it is what God is doing to you and  me. He takes all the things of our lives, the good, the bad and yeah, even the ugly, and he uses them as his  chisel to chip off anything that doesn’t look like Jesus. And if we will be patient and faithful to him, God will  continue to make us like Christ. Anything that doesn’t look like love and kindness and gentleness…God is at  work breaking it off of us. He will chip off things like selfishness, anger, hatred, envy, lust and bitterness. And  as he works on us, the folks just might see that every day, you are beginning to look a bit more like Jesus. So  much so that you look like one of the family! It won’t be completed until you get to see him face to face, but  God will give you a great head start…if you will allow him to do his creative work right now. Here’s our Bible  verse for today…  
Romans 8:28-29 BSB And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him,  who are called according to His purpose. (29) For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to  the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.  
Remember I’m praying for you!  
With love, PJ