Using Scattered Stones for Good and Godly Purposes
Key Verse to Read and Treasure
And a time for gathering stones (Ecclesiastes 3:5, ESV)
For Insight
No matter how we interpret scattering stones, it’s clear stones—both literally and figuratively—can be used for both obstructive and productive purposes.
The historical books of the Bible are filled with stories of how armies used stones strategically to obstruct or even destroy enemy territory. But we also learn how many of God’s people used stones to build up. When the Israelites had been taken into captivity the walls of Jerusalem became weak and torn down, God sent Nehemiah to oversee the rebuilding of the wall, using stones to strengthen and fill in the holes to keep the citizens safe from enemy invasion (see Nehemiah 1-6).
It also became the practice of many to use stones to build altars to God. We read how Moses, Abraham, and Isaac, to name a few, used to do this. Their altars made of stone became the places where people generations later returned, being reminded of God’s greatness and powerful. How God gave victory, delivered, and supplied blessing to his people down through the ages.
Think of the stones the enemy has scattered in your own path and life. What names do your stones have? Some stones might be labeled hate, injustice, negativity, abuses, poverty, emotional pain, physical disabilities, even sickness in some cases. These stones the enemy hopes will serve his purposes to destroy and hurt you. They are meant to be stones to make you stumble and fall. But just like your ancestors, dating all the way back to biblical times, God will show you how to use them for his righteous purposes. God will show you how to take your stones and make them steppingstones to greatness, knock down walls and give victory, and breakthrough. With God’s help you can show the devil his stones may have been meant for evil and bad, but God has shown you how to use them for good. The devil may scatter stones, but God has power to use those stones for good and godly purposes.
Check Yourself
Are you allowing the stones the enemy has scattered in your path to hinder or stop you, or are you using them to be useful in achieving your God-ordained purposes and fruitfulness?
Praying Ecclesiastes 3:5
Lord, reveal the stones the enemy has scattered in my path to bring destruction, and show me how to use them for good and godly purposes. Amen
Digging Deeper
Devotionally Yours 