Prettied Up?
What a God! His road stretches straight and smooth. Every God-direction is road-tested. Everyone who runs toward him makes it. (Psalm 18:30)
I think some of us serve God for the "perks", while others of us are less concerned with those "perks". God doesn't want us more focused on the perks than we are on him. What makes the difference to him is that we bring the pieces of our lives to him and then allow him to put them together - sometimes with "perks" and other times just regular life, but secure!
David outlines: God made my life complete when I placed all the pieces before him. When I got my act together, he gave me a fresh start. Now I’m alert to God’s ways; I don’t take God for granted. Every day I review the ways he works; I try not to miss a trick. I feel put back together, and I’m watching my step. God rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes. (vs. 20-24) All the pieces of our lives - and for most of us there are many - placed in his hands affords us the opportunity to finally see the broken ones mended, the displaced ones brought back into the picture, and the difficult to fit ones made to fit perfectly.
Sometimes we think it is us getting our "act together" which results in God being able to go about this work in our lives. We don't even possess the ability to get our "act together" apart from the grace extended by our heavenly Father, so even that action on our part is because he innervates us to respond! Pieces are all we have to bring to God. All of us have somehow made a shamble of some part of our lives - maybe not totally in every respect, but at least in some area. For some of us, we have made a royal mess of things. The good news is that our messed-up lives are really something God embraces with his love and tender care.
They might look a little battered and "used" on the outside, but under his care, they become shiny and new again. God isn't ashamed of the "shell" of our lives. Nothing pleases God more than to see a broken-down life come right up to him and ask to be made new again! When God undertakes the care and tending of our lives, he does so with the end in mind - that we would all resemble the one who gave our lives so we could live again - Christ. In all matters related to "putting our lives together", God is at work not only getting the pieces to fit but getting them to fit so they bring glory to him.
The neat thing about how God works is that he allows us to "feel" this connection with him - knowing and experiencing his tender care in putting our lives back together. God often has to do a "rewrite" of the pages of our lives because we bring him a "text" with missing pages, tattered edges, and unfinished chapters. Every road we travel may not be straight and smooth - in fact, some have destroyed parts of our lives as a result of choosing to travel them. God lays out before us a straight and smooth path. We have to choose to merge our lives into that path, though.
We bring some pretty "road-weary" lives to God. He has a "form" to work with, but all the battered parts of our lives need his touch! We don't realize the missing all the missing parts and big flaws, but our lives look pretty used up and dingy. He sees the frame of our being and upon that frame, he begins the work of reconstructing our lives - for the frame was created in his image and it is that which he uses to set us right again.
God is more than delighted to have us bring our beaten down wrecks of a life to him - no need to doctor it up or make it appear to be something it is not. In genuine and humble fashion, we present our lives to him - complete with the broken, dinged, and messed up parts. In powerful and compassionate fashion, he embraces what we offer to him. God isn't concerned with our appearance - he is concerned with our heart. He wants us to draw near more than he wants us to be "prettied-up"! Just sayin!
I think some of us serve God for the "perks", while others of us are less concerned with those "perks". God doesn't want us more focused on the perks than we are on him. What makes the difference to him is that we bring the pieces of our lives to him and then allow him to put them together - sometimes with "perks" and other times just regular life, but secure!
David outlines: God made my life complete when I placed all the pieces before him. When I got my act together, he gave me a fresh start. Now I’m alert to God’s ways; I don’t take God for granted. Every day I review the ways he works; I try not to miss a trick. I feel put back together, and I’m watching my step. God rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes. (vs. 20-24) All the pieces of our lives - and for most of us there are many - placed in his hands affords us the opportunity to finally see the broken ones mended, the displaced ones brought back into the picture, and the difficult to fit ones made to fit perfectly.
Sometimes we think it is us getting our "act together" which results in God being able to go about this work in our lives. We don't even possess the ability to get our "act together" apart from the grace extended by our heavenly Father, so even that action on our part is because he innervates us to respond! Pieces are all we have to bring to God. All of us have somehow made a shamble of some part of our lives - maybe not totally in every respect, but at least in some area. For some of us, we have made a royal mess of things. The good news is that our messed-up lives are really something God embraces with his love and tender care.
They might look a little battered and "used" on the outside, but under his care, they become shiny and new again. God isn't ashamed of the "shell" of our lives. Nothing pleases God more than to see a broken-down life come right up to him and ask to be made new again! When God undertakes the care and tending of our lives, he does so with the end in mind - that we would all resemble the one who gave our lives so we could live again - Christ. In all matters related to "putting our lives together", God is at work not only getting the pieces to fit but getting them to fit so they bring glory to him.
The neat thing about how God works is that he allows us to "feel" this connection with him - knowing and experiencing his tender care in putting our lives back together. God often has to do a "rewrite" of the pages of our lives because we bring him a "text" with missing pages, tattered edges, and unfinished chapters. Every road we travel may not be straight and smooth - in fact, some have destroyed parts of our lives as a result of choosing to travel them. God lays out before us a straight and smooth path. We have to choose to merge our lives into that path, though.
We bring some pretty "road-weary" lives to God. He has a "form" to work with, but all the battered parts of our lives need his touch! We don't realize the missing all the missing parts and big flaws, but our lives look pretty used up and dingy. He sees the frame of our being and upon that frame, he begins the work of reconstructing our lives - for the frame was created in his image and it is that which he uses to set us right again.
God is more than delighted to have us bring our beaten down wrecks of a life to him - no need to doctor it up or make it appear to be something it is not. In genuine and humble fashion, we present our lives to him - complete with the broken, dinged, and messed up parts. In powerful and compassionate fashion, he embraces what we offer to him. God isn't concerned with our appearance - he is concerned with our heart. He wants us to draw near more than he wants us to be "prettied-up"! Just sayin!
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