Are you pliable? Flexible? Moldable? Or are you rigid, stiff, and unyielding? Perhaps I should clarify that. When it comes to change? When it comes to being stretched and changed by God? Are you open to being different than you are, doing things differently or even being uncomfortable? Can you walk in faith without your past, your present, or what you predict the future will be like, always holding you back?
Being pliable is difficult. We sometimes plant our feet down, dig our heels in, stand firm, straight and rigid. Most of the time it is out of fear, whether we admit it or not. Fear that we will fail. Fear that we will get hurt or will hurt someone else. Fear that we will embarrass ourselves. Fear that we will be rejected. Fear that we aren't enough for the task. Fear of the unknown or the uncomfortable.
But it is nature's rule: that which does not bend WILL BE BROKEN. Nature will find a way to break that which will not bend. The same is true for us. If we do not bend to the things God brings us to, Satan will take the opportunity to break us over them. And he will always take that opportunity to do so. It is in his nature to delight in breaking us. If he can keep you from taking risks, if he can keep you comfortable, if he can continue to throw your past and your present failures and struggles in your face, he will do so and eventually he will break you. Break your chance of success, break your spirit and break your opportunity to be blessed the way God wants you to be blessed. What a thrill for our enemy to paralyze us and seize our blessings. I see him doing it in my life and in the lives of several people I care about right NOW.
This reminder is as much for me as it is for all of you reading: PLEASE see that when you become rigid and hardened and simply accept "this is who I am" or "this is my lot in life" and refuse to stretch and change and do something DIFFERENT than what you've always done, you will end up broken. It will happen. It is nature's way. It is also the way of all things spiritual. Change is required for growth. Faith is required for change. Stop talking about faith and start walking in it. Be bold. Step out in faith and don't hide-out fearing your weaknesses and your past or your love of being comfortable. If you are miserable in certain areas of your life but you continue to run from changing for fear of the change AND/OR fear that you can't change, leave that to God and walk in faith...or brace yourself for brokenness. It's one or the other. Like it or not. Bend or be broken.
3 comments:
Our friend Randy tells the story of a special experiment (I think it was in the biodome). He says they were growing trees and suddenly when the trees got to a certain height they would collapse and shatter. Trees collapsing and shattering - can you imagine.
After they looked at this phenomenon for awhile they determined it had to do with wind. Their wasn't wind in their closed environment like there is in the real world. Apparently the wind hitting the trees from various directions as they grow strengthens them. The trees in their experiment didn't get strengthened from the wind and couldn't stand up with their own weight and they collapsed and shattered. Interesting, huh?
I'm not sure if this is true or just one of Randy's great word pictures, but I remember the day he told me the story several years ago. What I took from that is what you are talking about today. Learn to bend, move with the wind, change. If you don't, you will break.
Amy, that's exactly the same story I thought of as I was reading this blog. Carlotta, thank you for the reminder.
Outstanding thoughts! An additional thought. In my own life I have experienced change so dramatic words fail me. I know. Part of my life was lived with God, His Son, and His Holy Spirit on the sideline (actually They were totally missing, because God is either totally IN or OUT of our lives) because I was in charge. The results were disastrous! When I moved God to His proper place in my life, some things changed, but for the life of me, I could not see my future except through the prism of my past. Talk about limiting. God's ready to DELIVER His blessings, but I was afraid to move forward, so we sat, for a long time. Don't let this happen. You can't walk on the water unless you step out of the boat, and even then, you will sink if you doubt. God is NOT the limiting factor, we are. The prism of our past can spell failure for our past if we continue to view our future through it. By faith, pick up God's prism and see the future He wants to give you. Lo and behold, the FULL and ABUNDANT life, as promised!
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