I have started a new Bible Study with some pretty awesome women at my church. We have embarked on a journey with Beth Moore called James, Mercy Triumphs. Each day I have been doing my daily assignment as a good little student but today, when I finished, I felt God leading me to do more. I started reading some old emails from a wonderful friend of mine who, for a while, wrote and sent "Nuggets" to some co-workers and friends each day. A quote in one of her emails really struck home with me today and I thought I would share it.
Here it is.....
"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of--throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself."
This paragraph is small but it packs a power punch in my book. Oftentimes, I wonder what God is doing and why he is doing it. Don't we all?! I have come to realize that the deeper we get into our relationship with Christ, the more "painful" it is at times to grow in His will. The more spiritually mature we become, the deeper he begins to dig in us, cleaning out the things that we don't want to let go of. I sometimes wonder why He is asking me to do such difficult things, and it hit me today as I read this paragraph; it's because he will not reside in anything run down, stagnant, unappealing to His eyes. He only wants the best, our best!
I would never invite someone to my house if it was a WRECK. If I am going to have company, I make sure that every nook and cranny of my house is clean. Well, listen here!! If you are a believer, GOD is living in your HOUSE, your real house, the house that matters.... RIGHT NOW!!!!! He sees EVERYTHING, so there is no point in trying to hide it.
You may have that one room or closet in your house where you throw everything you don't want people to see. Lord knows I do....my laundry room!! Ha! But I am here to tell you today that God is saying CLEAN IT OUT. Clean out the "Fear of rejection" closet! Clean out that "guilty pleasure" room! Clean out that "I have a family member who I won't speak to because they wronged me" nook! Clean out that "I am on the verge of divorce and I have too much pride to admit it" cranny!!! CLEAN IT OUT because God stands ready to build a palace out of YOU!!!! It is time we start emptying out what ties us to this Earth and start filling it up with what ties us to Heaven. After all, this is our ultimate goal, right?!
He wants to live inside of you!! Did you hear that?! He WANTS to live inside of YOU!!! WOW!!!!! He has CHOSEN you, calling you His MASTERPIECE. No matter what your circumstances are, GOD WANTS to live in you. No matter how broken your life is, God can and will come into your house, pick up the pieces and put it back together in a way you NEVER thought possible.
I am a Gifted Education Teacher. In our class this week, we have been talking about Art. Artists amaze me. I love to look at beautiful works of art, especially ones that are extremely detailed and elaborate. We have been talking about sculptors and potters, how they work long hours, days, sometimes even years before their masterpiece is completed. They pay attention to every detail until it mimics perfectly what they wanted it to portray. The thing, though, that stuck out to me the most is this: Potters will work for hours and hours trying to shape their piece of clay into a beautiful bowl or vase, but if it doesn't turn out just like he imagined, he doesn't throw it away. He STARTS OVER!!!! The potter will put the clay back on the wheel, wet his hands and gently start molding it AGAIN. Isn't this just like our GOD?!?!
You see, your house is God's work of art. He is the potter and You are the clay. When you mess up, when you aren't living up to your full potential, when you have a closet that isn't free of the clutter of this world, God doesn't throw you out. No! He places you back on the wheel, and gently starts remolding you into what he had originally intended for you to be all along...a one of kind, beautiful work of art....his MASTERPIECE!!
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