Lord God my savior, in Your hands our lives are given meaning and bear fruit.
It is not an easy process. We tend to seek the easiest route and the ones that please us personally. The common truth is we want instant gratification.
You desire to shape us into holy vessels. It is a shape we do not know or understand. I would compare it to being the shape of a square, and You wanting to make me into a circle. When approached with this concept, I would naturally say “No, I wish to keep my squared off points… as they are all that I know”. Such a transformation would be not on my list of things to do. It looks, sounds and feels very distressing. I would be averse to such a concept.
“No thanks” I would say, leave me as I am.
Even so, you led me through the squaring-off of every corner I had. You also removed any coating or shields that protected me and kept me isolated. Many of these endeavors You worked on me were done publicly, in plain sight for all to see.
More were done under the hood, deep within and not seen by anyone except the one getting the operation (me). And as I lay voluntarily under the knife to have all things removed ~ I trusted completely in you LORD. You removed the wrinkles. You removed the cancerous parts. You extracted the rot, mined the ego with pick and tongs, and excavated my selfish heart. I hurt when You revealed my dark brokenness. You then went on to wash me and heal me.
Oh, how I protested!
You watched me kick against every effort You made, my feet flailing like a two-year-old in mid-tantrum. Once I finally settled down, I would take what You had for me knowing that it was for my betterment.
Truly, there is nothing figurative in any of this. It really happened.
I was witness to it.
I was the one undergoing Heart Change surgery. I was dead inside and being made alive.
And it would be Grace to go through it all over again…as I am sure there will be minor reconstructive procedures from time to time.
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him” 1 Corinthians 2:9
“For who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” Isaiah 40:13
“But we have the mind of Christ” 1 Corinthians 2:16
To have the mind of Christ is to have a ladder out of darkness and into the daylight of LIFE.
