“You weren’t an accident. You weren’t mass produced. You aren’t an assembly-line product. You were deliberately planned, specifically gifted, and lovingly positioned on the Earth by the Master Craftsman.” —Max Lucado
What do we often do about the things we think we don’t like or don’t understand about ourselves?
The parts of who we are, that we just don’t know what to do with?
That perhaps, we don’t yet understand…
The things we believe to be “no good”…perhaps these ways about ourselves cause us a lot of trouble…
A lot of misunderstandings…
Ridicule…
Do we attempt to shut these things down?
Do we just attempt to “shut the whole thing down” because then it would surely be “easier”?
There are lies we can so easily believe about ourselves.
There are misunderstandings we can develop because of these believed lies that distort the way we perceive (or do not perceive) the way God created us to be—the way He intentionally designed us to function in our lives and in the earth.
Don’t you think the enemy would like to mess that up?
Don’t you think he would like to hijack these things about us?
These things that have been nothing but trouble for us thus far, but really God created them to be “treasures” to be discovered alongside Him…
Don’t you think the enemy would like to cause us to think we’re “defected” or that what is happening to us is…
too scary…
too uncomfortable…
too overwhelming…
too strange…
too different…
“Too MUCH to handle”
And so we decide to it’s best to just “shut the whole thing down”…
It’s like a, “stop this world, and just let me off” kind of thing.
But God doesn’t want us to just shut the whole thing down…
He wants us to draw close to Him, so that He can help us sort it all out.
SO THAT HE CAN HELP US TO MAKE SOME SENSE OF IT.
So that He can purify and sharpen that area of ourselves…
So that we can see it and begin to understand it.
We come to the One who created everything about us, we come to the One who can help us to know who He has really created us to be…
…so that we might learn to give Him free reign of whatever that part of us is, SO THAT HE CAN USE IT more beautifully than we could have ever imagined possible.
…that we may learn how to use it. How to step into it…
…that part of us, that area of us that we don’t understand, that part of ourselves that we find is filled with fear or seems to cause us too much trouble…
That part that we just wanted to “toss away”…
Disregard…
Ignore…
Hide away…
Because THAT part, yes, even THAT part of our design… is a part of us that He designed into us,
for His purpose,
for GOOD reason
and for GOOD use.
For example, He has created in me, a strong will.
But what happens when my strong will becomes more like a “stubbornness”
and it pulls against
His perfect will?
And on the other side, what happens when I learn
to surrender, to yield…
my will for His?
He can use my strong will(ingness) for His good purpose and His perfect will.
He can use my strong will for His kingdom work, because I’m going to be using my yielded will, only giving way for His will to be done.
He plans GOOD THINGS into us!
But we must learn not to just shut these things down just because we don’t understand them, or just because the enemy has infiltrated these areas of us—these areas that GOD designed into us…
Because He put these things there, to unfold in us, as we develop relationship with Him.
He put these things in there to cause us to draw near to Him for understanding…
He put these things in us to drive us on the journey into discovery
with Him.
Who am I to decide to shut myself down?
I belong to Him.
After all, don’t you think He knew what He was doing when He created me?
…when He created my unique design?
(I have to remind myself of this often.)
Who am I to decide that there is something about the way He designed me that should be shut down?
Or something that should be disregarded?
Tossed away…
Ignored…
…But He’s so good to wake us up, to give us sight…
To draw us into the place of learning and discovering with Him.
“Then the LORD said to me, ‘Look, Jeremiah! What do you see?’ And I replied, ‘I see a branch from an almond tree’….’You have observed correctly,’ said the LORD, ‘for I am watching over My word to accomplish it.’—Jeremiah 1:11-12
And then before we know it, He’ll put a deep hunger inside of us…
To know Him more…
To know this God who…
“Thought it would be a good idea to create me… me.” 🤯✨
And we long to know more of His ways…His heart…
And it blows us away…
And we come “alive” more and more each day…
As we discover and realize, that He created us intentionally.
That His design is intentional…
He didn’t plan on wasting a single thing He designed into us.
And all of the things we’ve tried to shut down about ourselves, for one reason or another…
He begins to change the way we’ve always thought about it all.
He begins to change our perception, our thinking, our hearts…
And He shows us, that He loves these things about us.
That He made us like that, intentionally.
He begins to show us that He did a good work in us, He put a good design into who we are, and He plans on using these things in us…
For His good plan and purpose.
In the most beautiful way that we never would have imagined possible.
“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” —Psalm 139:13-14
“But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.” —Isaiah 64:8
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” —Ephesians 2:10
Thank You, Father! 💝 All of those years of me attempting to just “shut it all down” because I didn’t see, I didn’t understand, and I believed the lies of fear over what You’ve said in Your Word…. but You are helping me to see and understand and wake up to realize that You created me to be a very specific way, for a very specific purpose—Your purpose. Oh the freedom that comes, the relief from being able to see and realize now…. what was happening, why I went through it, and what You were doing—all along the way. Thank You, God, for leading me into Your truth, and for teaching me. Keep doing it Lord… this miracle work that You’re doing in me.
How You set things right… 🌈
-Heather 🌺