It's been a long hot summer around here. It's been a busy one too. We've had 2 birthdays, 2 trips to Ga, 2 trips to Wy, 2 deaths and a surgery, not to mention, various trips to dentists and eye doctors, pediatricians, and the like, a terrible tick infestation and a lyme disease scare. It hasn't left a lot of "leisure" time! J's birthday went almost unnoticed, unfortunately. No, I didn't actually forget, J was out of town on his birthday. I'm not sure he even received much of a present.
I love giving presents. I take it as a personal challenge to find the perfect gift to match the person. I'm sure I enjoy it as much as the person receiving it! I love to wrap them in unusual ways as well. I remember one year at Christmas I used the old trick of wrapping J's present in a box that was in a box that was in a box that was in a box. I don't even remember what I gave him, I just remember how much fun it was to watch him keep opening boxes until he finally reached the prize in the middle.
The Lord brought this image to mind not long ago. I was sitting with a friend over coffee talking about the freedom there is to be found in Jesus. I was explaining how I was once in a church I thought was free, then God moved us to a different church and I found more freedom there. After a while, the Lord moved us yet again and I found a bit more freedom. After this last move, I can honestly say He brought me into a place of still more freedom. It was like those boxes, only instead of each one getting smaller, they were each getting bigger.
God wants us to live, to grow, to operate in complete freedom. That means, not a bigger box, but no box! I don't mean with no order and rampant chaos, but to live in such a manner that I free God from whatever "box" I have him in and allow Him to do just as He pleases without my interference. I also realize it's a process, this freedom thing. It doesn't all happen at once. He brings us into more and more freedom as we walk with him, and as we walk with him and get to know him more and more, we will trust him more and more. As we learn to trust him more and more we realize he doesn't need our help. He doesn't need our schedules or plans or programs or agendas. He only needs open hearts that are willing to relinquish control to him, no matter what that looks like in life. I don't want to hinder what God wants to do in me and through me by saying "yes, God have complete control in my life, as long as it looks like this and it can happen within these parameters".
It can be a scary thing to let go and let God be God. It takes trust to realize he is, in fact, bigger than I am and quite capable of handling the control I so reluctantly turn over to him. I'm sure things looked pretty out of control for Joseph about the time he landed in the bottom of that pit, but God was doing something too big for him to see at that moment. We must not fear turning control over to the Lord. (I know!! I know!! easier said than done!!!) But the word tells us in 1John 4:8 that perfect love casts out all fear. That's all fear, even the fear of losing control.
So, I say to you, get out of the box! Better yet, release the Lord from the box and put it in the recycling bin where it belongs! Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom! Cardboard is not a good look for you, anyway. It's so last year!
Soaked in His blessings,
Spokenfor
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