We are gutting and remodeling our
latest, 3rd, fixer upper. Yesterday I found myself pulling tons of nails
out of used studs so that we can reuse them. I got to thinking how God does
that to and for us. He takes our hurts, our wounds, our sins, our weaknesses
and transforms them and uses them and heals them. He restores what the locusts
have eaten (Joel 2:25-32). He makes beauty from ashes, turns our mourning into
joy plants us by streams of water as a display of His splendor (Is 61:3).
There were some boards that had tiny
nails in them, they were easy and relatively painless to extract and finish. I
have had some quick and relatively painless lessons to learn over the years.
God revealed something ugly in me and gave me the grace/wisdom/knowledge/obedience to turn from them and He brought healing. Then there were some boards that had tiny nails, giant nails, and giant crooked
nails in them, these required some beating and finesse to extract and be done.
Can anyone relate? I have had some larger issues and deeply ingrained patterns that God had
to really finesse me to let go of. He would prod, I would buck, He would poke I might listen, then I would acquiesce and He would grow and strengthen more into His image. Then there was one board that I wasn’t sure
that I could use in my analogy, it had all of these nails in them, but as I
extracted one deeply seated nail a crack ran the length of the board and I
thought this board is now useless. Do you ever feel like that? I know there
have been times when I have been so beat down by the world, hurt, abused,
betrayed, bullied, angry, vengeful, downright broken and useless. But, God. He
is a good, good Father. Adonai! He takes us broken and hurting and pours the
Balm of Gilead into every dark and deep crevice and gives us a voice to
proclaim the freedom and strength and joy that we have found onto all we meet. He is so faithful to meet us wherever we are and to take whatever we offer Him and make it greater.
2 Corinthians 3:16-18 (HCSB) but whenever a
person turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. We all, with unveiled faces,
are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being
transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who
is the Spirit.
Isaiah 61:3-4 to comfort all who
mourn,
to provide for those who mourn in
Zion;
to give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
festive oil instead of mourning,
and splendid clothes instead of despair.
And they will be called righteous trees,
planted by the Lord
to glorify Him.
to give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,
festive oil instead of mourning,
and splendid clothes instead of despair.
And they will be called righteous trees,
planted by the Lord
to glorify Him.
They will rebuild the ancient ruins;
they will restore the former devastations;
they will renew the ruined cities,
the devastations of many generations.
they will restore the former devastations;
they will renew the ruined cities,
the devastations of many generations.
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