“Where am I?”  I’ve wondered this over the past few months.  My life looks very different than it did a few years ago.  And though I didn’t like some things about my life a few years ago things now seemed worse and unfamiliar.  But were they worse?

When you renovate a home it involves tearing things apart.  When it’s torn up the house looks worse than it was (and unfamiliar) but it’s being prepared to function better and look better.  Ahh!  I’m on my own episode of ‘This Old House’!  (Or maybe ‘This Middle Aged House’.)

Earlier this year I felt like God ‘gave me’ Isaiah 43:18-19.  “Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old.  Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert” (NKJV).  

Last week it dawned on me why things are unfamiliar and seem worse than before.  God is doing a “new thing” just like He said He would.  He’s stripping away the former things.  That’s why things are unfamiliar and I don’t recognize where I’m at.  Things aren’t worse.  They’re just in the preparation stage.

Do you feel like you’re being torn apart like an old (or not so old) home?  Have you wondered where you are?  Maybe God is preparing you for something new, something better.

So where am I?  I’m right where God wants me.  And maybe you are too.

Shagufta

“Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” James 5:16a (NKJV)

I was going to take this verse to the ‘bank’.  For years I struggled with the desires of my heart being idols.  My idols promoted lofty thoughts and feelings that said they could bring me greater joy than God.  God revealed my idolatry to me when I read Elyse Fitzpatrick’s book, Idols of the Heart. That was at least 5 years ago. (sigh).  Recently He showed it to me again. Even though I didn’t feel like placing the desires of my heart at God’s feet, I did.  It made me uncomfortable and even sad because I wondered if this meant I would never receive my heart’s desires. However, this sounded like a lie because God had previously spoken to me about a couple of my desires, but in a promising way.  The problem was that I held them too closely; closer than I held God.

I confessed my idolatry to a couple of Christian friends and they did the same with me.  Every day I cast down the lofty thoughts and feelings and I declared God to be on the throne of my life.  That Sunday in church it dawned on me that I was content!  God delivered me of my idolatry and I didn’t want anything more than Him!  I was so giddy that I thought I would come unglued.

I used to think being transparent was scary but Proverbs 29:25 (NKJV) says, “The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe.”  I’m sure this verse has more than one application but it spoke to me. The devil wants us to be afraid of confessing our sins to one another because he doesn’t want us to shed our strongholds. He wants us ensnared.  Part of my heart was ensnared because I had elevated the desires of my heart above God’s throne.

Let’s serve God, not only in deeds, but also in our hearts.  We don’t serve Him to get something, but in His generosity He says He will honor those who serve Him (John 12:26).  If there’s anything in your heart that’s not of God, I encourage you to be transparent to a fellow believer that you trust.  Our generous God wants to deliver us and even honor us.  God blessed me with this blog opportunity the day after I was delivered from idolatry.  I consider it an honor.

Shagufta

Currently, one of my favorite shows is Overhaulin’ on the Discovery channel.

I love this show! “The owner gets tricked; while the car gets tricked out.” They ‘steal’ someone’s car, overhaul it in seven days and return it to the unsuspecting (but at this point distraught) owner. Along the way they have ‘insiders’ who are people (family and friends) who know the truth about what is happening and are in on it (some of them even help out). They have an amazing team that deconstructs the car, replaces engines, transmissions, sheet metal, stereos, etc, and then gives an amazing paint job. Oh, yeah, and they work around the clock to get it done. My favorite part is the happy ending.

These cars have value to the owner even if it is junk when it is ‘stolen’ from them. They were inherited from parents, or received from a brother who shipped out, or where a husband proposed to his wife or maybe it’s just their only form of transportation. They think it’s been taken from them, and they are really sad to think they will never see it again. There are tears, hostility and regret on those faces.

When they find out what was really going on…you should see those faces! They are reunited with their car, their piece of the past, their last gift from their dad. Of course they love the improvements! It’s what they would have done themselves (probably) if they had 40 years of automotive experience and a team of the best. But the emotion at receiving this incredible gift; they are so grateful. They can’t believe that all this was done for them. They feel so undeserving.

Okay, raise your hand if you know where I’m going with this. (how many of you raised your hand?)
Someday we will be overhauled. We will receive new bodies, be reunited with loved ones who have gone before, and all because Someone is working 24/7 to make sure it happens. He has amassed a team of experts, and some amateurs, to prepare us. This is an incredible gift for which we are grateful, and I know that I, for one, feel very undeserving.

We get to participate in God’s Overhaulin’ by being insiders. We can be the one’s that help people find out about this incredible opportunity. That make that connection between someone who doesn’t know and Jesus who is just waiting to give them this amazing gift.

I want to be an insider. Don’t we all?

Oh, give me a chance I could probably find a biblical analogy for Deadliest Catch. Wait! I know –

Peace!

Barb