Coined as a Christian - Dianne McQueen
This devotion did not come from my bible reading, it came from a movie. But the Lord gave it to me and I wrote as fast as he was putting it in my mind. Have you ever thought about how a coin is made. The young man in the movie was in the army and have taken a leave because his father was dying. He was talking to his father and comparing his life to a coin.
First the coin is minted. I think the day we are saved we are minted for Christ. By being minted the coin is stamped with an image, because it has a value. The penny has Lincoln, the nickel has Jefferson, dime has Roosevelt and so on. When we are saved we have Gods image stamped on our lives therefore we are of more value than any coin.
A coin has ridges. The ridges are where God is molding us , Job 33:6 says we are made of clay and if we allow God to mold us he will mold us more like his image. Where we are different than the coin, it has no choice to what it will be made into. We have and make many choices through out our life time. But if we allow God to guide us in our decisions the molding will be less painful.
The coin is then examined. As Christians we should examine our lives everyday to make sure we are living the best we can for the Lord, he made us and now we are his 'coin'.
Next the coin is punched. The image, Lincoln, Jefferson, Roosevelt, is punched on the coin. Going through everyday life the devil has a way of punching us. He knows where we are weak, what gets us down, what easily besets us: cancer, heart attack, our kids not serving the Lord and lately the virus. The devil watches us closely and knows when to strike, BUT, NOTHING passes through to us unless God allows it. Sometimes that's hard to remember but we are saved and we are HIS child and he loves us and knows what's best at that time in our life. Do we like it...NO. It's just like the coin. If it had a say in all it goes through it would probably just say leave me be a piece of silver.
Last the coins cleaned. it's cleaned of any dust or dirt that might remain on it so it isn't imperfect. It has met all the requirements, gone through all the stages and now is ready to be used. When we pray and ask Jesus to forgive us our sins, I John 1:9, he washes us clean and we are ready for his use.
So in some ways we are like that coin. It gets punched, stamped, ridges put in, examined, cleaned and finally sent on its way for years of service to mankind. I hope through my lifetime since I've been saved God can tell me I'm useful. My preacher, husband, often prays "God you don't need me but I sure need you". Try to be more useful, than the coin, in whatever ministry God has allowed you to serve in.