Shine Bright Like a Diamond

Freedom. I spent many years trying to find freedom from the agonizing voices in my mind constantly telling me I was never enough. Then one day in my counselor’s office, I felt so close to freedom, and yet so far. I made slow and steady progress, yet I still felt the weighty chains of unworthiness and abandonment around my mind, at times sinking me like a wrecked ship into the vast depths of depression and suicidal thoughts. I didn’t know God was about to meet me right there in the storm of my struggle.

My counselor asked me to close my eyes and, at that moment, God gave me a glorious vision that brought down the walls around my guarded heart and allowed the divine healing that only He could orchestrate. Behind closed eyes, I gazed in wonder at a clear blue diamond sparkling so brightly that it seemed to emanate light itself. Cut with uncountable facets and reflecting brilliant light, the gem was almost glowing. I watched the diamond travel back to its raw state, appearing now as a lump of coal wrapped in the darkness of the ore pit it rested within.

Diamonds are never taken from a mine all shiny and beautiful. They are found in pits, covered in black ore, dull and rough. Once extracted, a diamond is put through a separation process to wipe clean every speck of the ore standing in the way of its brilliance. Just like a diamond in the rough, our loving God’s light pierces through the surrounding darkness as He extracts us from the hands of the enemy, speaking life to death. He carefully and tenderly separates us as His own chosen children ready to be transformed by His redeeming power. When we put our faith in Jesus, we are no longer lost to the darkness but are brought out to the light where truth can wash us clean from sin and shame. His Holy Spirit comes in and removes every stain, every bit of dirt. He scrubs off the feeling of being lost; for now we are found (Lk. 15:10). He rubs away the searching, the longing, the unknowing; for now, He has been made known. But this is only the beginning for this preciously beloved gem.

Now the transformation process begins. Only in the hands of the Master Craftsman does a diamond realize its true untapped potential. Our Creator begins to cut away at those roughly hewn edges. Some cuts are small, some large. But every single one is purposeful. As God cuts away the lies that have hindered us, it can be painful at times and hard to let go of beliefs about ourselves that have taken root through the devil’s deception. Yet as each piece falls away, so does the weight that we were not meant to carry. Feeling unloved, unworthy, as though we’re never enough—they break off like glacial cliffs being tossed to the sea. Feeling abandoned, alone, unfixable—they are cast off as dust in the wind. Stripped of the falsehoods that we’ve clung to, the gem within begins to catch and reflect the light of the Master Craftsman. With each precise cut, more surface area catches His brilliance. The heaviness of false identity is lifted and replaced with the truth of whom we are—chosen, royal, God’s special possession, and beloved children of the Lord Most High (1 Pet. 2:9; 1 Jn. 3:1). Transformed into something new, the diamond bears little resemblance to what it once was. And suddenly, the once dull stone is nothing but the reflection of something far greater—the Master Creator. “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him” (Gen. 1:27 NKJV). The more we are filled with this truth, the more the God of light and goodness is reflected in us. And in the midst, He gives us a testimony of His redeeming love, all for His glory.

I saw in that diamond the transformation God had been orchestrating in my life, and the transformation He has planned for every believer. By showing me who I truly am and who every believer truly is, I could come against the lies that I had believed about myself for far too long. What’s even more beautiful is that His work is never finished, and neither is our transformation to something greater. “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6 KJV). The more I draw into the truth through His Word, the stronger my mind is against the lies of the enemy when the devil tries to attack my mind. When we know our Master Creator, we know who we are. We can shed the lies of the enemy and step into all God has created us to be, armed with a Christ-like mind that knows our true identity in Him. And with that, we can truly “let this mind be in [us] which was also in Christ Jesus” (1 Cor. 2:16 NKJV, author’s emphasis), being set free to walk in the image of Christ that we were divinely created to reflect.

Jesus is the light to the darkness, the beacon to truth and freedom. In Him, we are made new, redeemed, and set free. You are a precious gem to the Lord—chosen, called, and loved beyond measure. No matter where you are in your journey to freedom, know that your heavenly Father wants nothing more than your whole heart. Everything else can fall into His loving hands as He transforms your mind with His truth a

nd brings freedom to the dark places of your soul. You, my friend, are a diamond, and you were made to shine!

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (Ps. 139:13-14 NIV).