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
I can't stop singing, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty." Scott and I went to the "big" ultrasound today where we tested to see if our baby had Down's, one of the Trisomy disorders, or any neural tube defects. I must admit the palms were a little sweaty and the heart was racing a bit. As surreal as this pregnancy is, I don't want anything to be wrong with this precious life inside of me. Well, holy is right. The Lord is not just good; He is awesome! Our little baby instantly began moving and grooving for us showing off fingers and toes and a great heart beat! Even though I am on my third, watching the miracle of life on that screen NEVER gets old! It truly blows my mind every time I get to see our precious angels developing inside of me! The scan came out wonderfully. We got all positives on all the scans the doctor (who was absolutely INCREDIBLE) could do. Now we just wait for some blood work to confirm that everything is okay with our little boy. ...
Comments