Last week was one of those weeks that I thought me to my knees. It was one in which I shared and prayed with close friends. As a sweet friend hugged me last night she said, "I am still praying", I knew God was showing me He is still at work. Prayer is powerful. When we are weak prayer gives us strength. God is molding and shaping me and my husband in ways that are stretching us to the edge. Remember getting silly putty as a kid? I loved that gooey stuff. You could shape it into anything and even place it on a cartoon paper and copy the funnies. The same is with play dough. It comes in every color. You can mix and match. Shape it into anything. Squeeze it out and push it in. You can make a castle or cupcakes.
When our lives are being squeezed, pulled and pushed it is not easy. Change is not easy. But, it is through that shaping and reshaping that we become a masterpiece of design. We are unique. One of a kind. Our lives are in God's hands. I wouldn't want that any other way.
Once you have that silly putty and play dough out, ever try to put it back in the way it came? Impossible my friends. The same is with our lives, praise the Lord. While He is molding and shaping us, He is taking away those imperfections, mixing and matching, making new. We are forever becoming new creatures in Christ. Everyday we have a choice to go with the flow or make a difference. We have a choice to let our circumstances overcome us, or reach into those very circumstances and pull out blessings in disguise.
It's like one of those word games where you place a word like, "Hope and Faith" and see how many new words you can make. We might see just one circumstance, but within that one, there are blessings beyond our imagination. We just have to focus correctly and change our vision.
See, my marriage has struggled in the past two years. When job loss hits, it doesn't just effect the money coming into your home, but every facet of your life. Stress, depression and loss are all emotions that take a strong faith and belief to overcome. Somewhere in the midst of our circumstances we were losing that. We are doing better today. Praise God. We still have those days where we lose focus again and struggle to even smile, but through those days the Lord is showing us, "It's not about you and what you want." It's all about Him! We can get crabby. We can fall into a pity party. We can feel alone. We can begin to think no one cares. Satan loves to set those traps for us. When we fall into those we are moving away from the very God who working behind the scenes for our tomorrow. When I take my eyes off Him, I am being selfish.
Isaiah 51:1-2 "Listen to me, all who hope for deliverance-all who seek the Lord! Consider the rock from which you were cut, the quarry from which you were mined. Yes, think about Abraham, your ancestor, and Sarah, who gave birth to your nation. Abraham was only one man when I called him. But when I blessed him, he became a great nation."
Those are words of hope my friends!! Christ is the Rock in which we were built. He is our strong hold. He is refining us. He is molding us for greatness. Greatness that will bring Him glory and honor. Think of Abraham. When God called him to leave his home, he had no idea where he was going. But he said, "Yes, Lord, I will follow." Sarah stood by his side. God blessed them with a child in their old age. Even though throughout their life they thought they were barren, God knew different. He saw up ahead. He saw the picture they could not see.
"For the mountains may move and the hills disappear, but even then my faithful love for you will remain. My covenant of blessing will never be broken." Isaiah 54:10
