The question has entered my mind before that if my parents knew what I would go through (loneliness, rejection, death of loved ones, tracheotomy, cancer 2x…..), would they have chosen to give birth to me? Of course, that’s a futile question because God is in control. We have no control over whether or not we will be born. Who God calls to be born, WILL be born. “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” Psalm 139:16 No one can stop God. Man can’t stop or cancel what God planned and created. Man can’t stop when God calls us to come out. “Before I was born the Lord called me; from my mother’s womb He has spoken my name.” (Isaiah 49:1)
Of course, no mother or father, wants their child to go through any of those things. God knows though that those things polish us and cause us to grow stronger. He’s already chosen us to be born so He allows these things to happen so we become closer to Him. My mother gave birth to me but it was the hand of God in my life that made my life like a sharpened sword. He allowed me to write a book after my greatest struggles of having had cancer. My book is words of a sharpened sword to encourage others through life’s trials. It is my weapon of power to slay the enemy. There is power in my testimony. “He made my mouth like a sharpened sword.” (Isaiah 49:2)
For the first years of my life, God “hid” me while He made me into a polished arrow. “In the shadow of His hand He hid me.” He worked on me. He cut, rubbed and shaped my life with pain, rejection, fear, sorrow, loneliness, cancer twice … until I became polished. Being polished is not punishment. “He made me into a polished arrow.” Polishing is for making us pure but able to shine for Him. It seemed as though life’s struggles were dragging me backwards but they had a hidden purpose. Once I had been through the worst and was polished, He hid me in His quiver until the time was right to use me. Little did I know, He was preparing me to be launched into something greater! “He said to me, “you are my servant in whom I will display my splendor.” (Isaiah 49:4) You did not choose me but I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit.” John 15:16a I was chosen. I’ve always been in His hand or His quiver. To be in His hands all the days of my life has been a reward! “Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand, and my reward is with my God.” Isaiah 49:4 The harder it seems He pulls us back means the farther forward we will fly in time.
God first hides the servant in the shadow of His hand and then in His quiver. When called forth, I, His servant, stood disbelieving in the face of God calling me out of the womb, blinded by self-doubt that God can use me. Yet, He says He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, He hid me and He makes me into a polished arrow and then hides me in His quiver. He will protect me from my “enemies” until I have finished His work that He called me from the womb to do. He launched me when He was ready to use me. “I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength.” Isaiah 49:5
God calls all of us forth with a purpose. We will all find being “rubbed” a challenge but He has chosen each one of us. Whatever we go through, He will protect us and then, at the right moment, He will use us as arrows to share God with all the people on our target. The more polished we are, the better chance we have of hitting the mark. The polished arrow alone does not determine its own destination, the archer does. He decides when to pull us from His quiver.
Don’t listen to the lie of the enemy and wonder why or if you should have been born. “I chose you before I formed you in the womb; I set you apart before you were born.” Jere. 1:4 My life is not about what I can and can’t do or what I can or can’t go through; it’s about what God can do with me and through me. I, as an arrow, have so much potential that God can work with and use. I must just be willing to let Him polish me.
What has God allowed in your life that you wish you didn’t have to go through? What are you being polished with? Are you arguing with God in thoughts and actions that you shouldn’t have been born or that you can’t be used? Are you not allowing Him to polish you with things that cut, shape, rub and hurt at times? An arrow cannot be polished without friction. “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in His.” Rom. 8:18 He is only making you better so that He can launch you forward. “See, I have appointed you today.” Jere. 1:10a If you are a part of His quiver, He knows your potential and you are in His hand for a purpose.
