The Cutting Process
3 Reflections
God’s people are His private treasure. Malachi is the last letter of the Old Testament, and it’s given to a tired people. They had come home from exile and rebuilt the temple, and now they were going through the motions: “It is useless to serve God” (Malachi 3:14). Into that weariness the Lord says, “They shall be Mine… on the day that I make them My jewels.” The Hebrew word for “jewel” is segullah — a king’s personal treasure, separated from anything else in the king’s possession. God was saying His people aren’t just part of His inventory of possessions. They are what the King keeps special for Himself.
What the King keeps, He forms. A raw diamond looks nothing like the one in a crown. The craftsman sets it on his bench, studies it for the edges that keep light from passing through, and cuts them away. What he removes is real diamond. It’s also what keeps the stone from being priceless. That’s why God so often brings us to the end of ourselves — so we won’t fight the chisel when He begins to shape us. He’s cutting a living stone to fit the house He’s building (1 Peter 2:5). Every cut is precise.
The hand on the blade is a Father’s hand. Notice how the verse ends: “I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.” The same God who cuts also spares. You may be mid-cut right now. Something has been removed that you thought was part of you — a role, a plan, a relationship — and you don’t feel like a jewel. You feel like what’s left over. But a craftsman doesn’t spend hours on a stone he plans to throw away. Every cut says you’re being kept as a priceless possession of the God who delights in you.
“You may venture to compare yourself to such a diamond, for you are one of God’s people; and this is the time of the cutting process. Let faith and patience have their perfect work, for in the day when the crown shall be set upon the head of the King, Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, one ray of glory shall stream from you.” - Charles Spurgeon
2 Scriptures
“For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.”
— Deuteronomy 7:6
“You shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.”
— Isaiah 62:3
1 Action
Ask yourself:
what has been taken from me this season that I keep calling a loss?
Maybe something has been taken from you this season—a plan you were counting on, a relationship you thought would last, a door you expected to open, or simply the version of your life you thought you would be living by now.
Don’t minimize the loss. Grieve what needs to be grieved. But don’t assume that because something has been removed, something has gone wrong.
Malachi 3:17 reminds you who you are before it tells you what God is doing: “They shall be Mine.” You belong to Him. You are His segullah—His treasured possession. So instead of only asking, “God, why did You let me lose this?” ask another question: “Father, what are You forming in me through this?”
You may not understand the cut yet. But you can trust the hand holding the blade. The Craftsman has not discarded you. He is forming what He treasures.
Grace and peace,
NEIL
