When God is about to work in my life in a mighty way, when He is about to do great things, I often find myself in the the midst of a massive clean out. Things are purged and taken away. Life is altered and shifted to make room for what He is about to do. In the midst of this clearing I can go from completely lost and confused to feeling relaxed and relieved. Most of the time I am unaware that He is working while being pushed, pried, and stretched beyond recognition until I look back on the battlefield in awe of all He has done.
I like comfort, normalcy, and consistence. I believe my thorn in my side as Paul talked about in the new testament is change. It's the one thing that actually is, ironically, a constant in my life. Change draws me to my knees and His side. I just finished studying Gideon from the Old Testament. God stripped Him bare in order to use Him in a big way. So often God needs to strip us in order to use us. He needs to reveal our skeletons so that we are able to deal with them and move toward Him. Don't get me wrong, He can use us with all our baggage and imperfections but I think if we really want to be close to Him and fully used by Him we need moments of cleaning out.
Every season we clean something out whether it's the garage, the kids' closets, or our ridiculous shoe collection. We grow and our styles change needing a good liquidation of stuff. When we are done we typically feel rejuvenated, relieved, fresh, and ready to take on that new season in our life. The same is true after God has cleaned out some stuff deep in the pit of our souls. We may not understand what is happening or why when we are knee deep in the expulsion of things in our lives. However, when He is through we feel complete lacking in nothing. So, sweet friends, continue the race He has set before you finding comfort in knowing His cleaning out of your life isn't a bad thing. It is quite the opposite.
"...knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." James 1:3-4
"Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:13-14
Love & Blessings,
Meg
Teenage Mother A donkey owner Simon of Cyrene Who are these people? I am sure you can figure out the first one: Mary the mother of Jesus. Who are the others and what do all three of these people have in common? They all did extraordinary things but, for the most part, went unseen. Do you ever feel unseen? Undervalued? I do. I try not to get caught up in that space, but I find myself there too often. While Mary is infamous today, she wasn't when she brought the King into this world. She was a teenager who gave birth in a barn. She was an outcast who was pregnant but not married. She told of an unbelievable story involving an angel, a Spirit, and a Savior who was going to save the world. Could you even imagine? It's easy for us to be in awe of Mary. We know the whole story. She didn't. And neither did the people around her. She had to live it. To top it all off, she had to watch her beloved son die a gruesome death. Talk about feeling unseen and undervalued. She faithfu...
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