When God Uses a Mortar and Pestle

Have you ever considered the process of using a mortar and pestle? Take salt, for example. Salt minerals must be mined. It begins as a rock; then, it must be broken down until it is more manageable. Once the salt is broken down enough, we could use a processor or a mortar and pestle to break it down even more until it is a usable size for seasoning. A processor may be easier because it is quicker, but you run the risk of overprocessing the salt and it becoming powder or underprocessing and the granules being too large to use. With a mortar and pestle, though it will take longer, you maintain more control.

I like to think that God uses a mortar and pestle on us sometimes. When we don’t understand why God has not yet answered the prayer, we don’t understand why we are still in the job we are in, or we simply feel like He is not using us as we think we should. He may be breaking us down into a more usable granule. For some of us, it takes more time, and God may have to grind a little harder, for others, not so long. He is taking His time to ensure we are ready for what He has for us. He wants to make sure we are just the right-sized granule of salt before He seasons the food.

Hang in there because maybe you are going through a rough patch right now and you have been asking where God is. He is working on you. He is breaking you down to the perfect size so that you are ready for His service. Don’t lose hope because His time is better than ours.

Philippians 2: 13-16 (KJV)

13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

14 Do all things without murmurings and disputings:

15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

16 Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.