The Best Sharpener (Friday Devotional)

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”

- Lamentations 3:22-23

One of the underappreciated miracles of modern technology is the electric pencil sharpener. Admit it, you haven’t given much thought to these in a while—they’re just part of the package in an office or classroom, no more notable than tape dispensers or staplers. But for anyone who’s ever mangled a pencil in a cheap manual sharpener, much less tried to whittle one down with a pocketknife, you’ll understand my respect for the electric variety.

In goes a blunt pencil, presently good for nothing but the pink eraser on the other end. But when the pencil is pushed far enough into the electric box, suddenly a motor whirs, blades spin, and you feel the pencil vibrate in your fingers. After 2 or 3 seconds you pull it out, and behold: suddenly your worthless stick of wood and lead is a writing instrument again, sharp and ready for work. With little fanfare, electric pencil sharpeners take that which is dull and make it sharp again, transforming something worthless into something worthy.

God does the same thing in our lives every day. With unrelenting grace, He takes terrible circumstances, sterile faith, and broken people and offers redemption, bringing fire from ashes and life to dry bones. His mercies are new every morning, Lamentations says, his steadfast love unceasing. God is continually in the business of empowering the powerless, encouraging the hopeless, and loving the unlovable.

There are days when life has you feeling dulled and unusable—dulled by heartbreak or anger or depression or apathy. In such times, it’s tempting to believe that God has abandoned you for the moment, that His grace can be found only in occasional, spectacular surprises instead of in daily, humble blessings. But the truth is that God never leaves you nor forsakes you; He walks beside you whether you are on the mountaintop or in the valley of the shadow. So when you are at your lowest, remember the promise of God’s mercy and redemption—from your present trouble, God will sharpen you into an even more worthy instrument.