Don't Jump!!!

I have stepped out recently, no, I don't mean I'm stepping out on J, I mean I'm trying something new.  I come from a long line of women who sew.  Both my grandmothers were incredible seamstresses, making suits and quilts and any number of wonderful creations.  Me, not so much.  I can sew a button on if I have to, and I have even been known to fix a drooping hem, but that's about as far as it goes.  I once made curtains and pillows and covered the cushions of an entire set of outdoor furniture using only my trusty glue gun.  I have decided a glue gun is to a woman what duct tape is to a guy.  Give me enough time and an outlet and I can fix almost anything! lol  Despite my ingenuity with my outdoor decor, I have never taken the time or patience to learn to actually sew.  Recently, though, a dear friend of mine at church started a quilting class.  Something prompted me to sign up so I dragged my butt into gear and my sewing machine out of the closet and went to my first class.  I am hooked!  I loved it!  It's so much fun seeing something come together like that.  Despite the attention to detail needed I am finding it a great outlet for the creativity the Lord has plunked down in my soul.

There are quite a few things I like to put my hands to whenever I get the chance.  You might find me doing needlework, or crochet, or candle making, or even a little painting.  I am really hoping someone decides to teach a class in pottery.  I've always wanted to learn how to do that!  There's something quieting about working with your hands, something so fulfilling to see something spring to life beneath your hands.  No wonder the Lord loves to create!  It's fun!

Anyone who reads my ramblings on a regular basis should know that there is another side to my musings.  You see, I was having some trouble with my quilt block the other day.  I was trying to sew it without using pins to hold it in place before running the seams.  The fabric kept slipping around and making it very difficult to complete the project cleanly.  That made me think. (I hate it when that happens!)   How difficult would it be if a potter were trying to form something on the wheel, but it kept jumping off?  It's a funny image, but that is exactly what we do the the Lord so many times.  We find ourselves on his wheel with the water of the spirit running over us to soften our hearts and as soon as he starts to mold, to form, to work with us, we jump right off the wheel while it's still in motion.  The Lord is faithful, he grabs a spatula, scrapes us up off the floor where we've gone splat, puts us back on the wheel and starts all over again.

How long do you think it will take for the finished product to be usable if we continue to jump off the wheel time and time again?  I know I am guilty of taking that flying leap more times than I would like to admit to.  My other favorite thing to do is to try to mold myself into what I think should be.  How weird would it be if the potter was working his lump of clay and suddenly the lump gave a little grunt and out popped a handle or a spout?  I have to admit the image makes me giggle just a little bit.  Now, we all know that is impossible, but it is what we attempt to do to ourselves.  How many times have we tried to inform the Lord how we should look or just what needed to be changed about ourselves?

There is nothing the clay can do to hurry along the needed changes or to make any of these changes for itself.  Such it is with our own hearts.  The work is the Lord's, not ours.  Sure, we have our part. Our part is to remain on the wheel, to remain in His hands.  It's our job to be open to Him and the work He is doing in our lives and in our hearts. Our job, our focus, should be to stay in and to strengthen our relationship with him.  It is through that relationship that we are changed.  It says in

 2 Cor. 3:18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 

When you read the above passage you can see the way we are changed is by beholding the glory of the Lord.  That is when we are changed by the Spirit of the Lord. This speaks to relationship.  It is by spending time with him, beholding him, if you will, that we are changed from glory to glory.  It is not by working at it or exercising self control or willing it to happen. It is simply by resting in Him, by spending time with Him that we are changed.

Philippians 2:13 tells us:
for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

Notice whose doing the work here?  It is God who works in you.  If we allow Him (that's our part in the equation, the allowing part)   to work in our hearts He will make the necessary changes there.  That doesn't mean that we then don't have to walk them out.  I tried and tried to quit smoking to no avail. Then I quit, not smoking, I quit trying to quit!  I stopped trying to do something in my own power that I was unable to do within myself.  I started praying about it, submitting my heart to Him and, one day, He did the work.  I knew the moment it was done and I simply walked up to a trash can and threw away my pack and my lighter and I have been smoke free since.  This didn't happen in the middle of a great and mighty revival service at church. It didn't happen after I fasted and prayed and spent a month crying out to Him. Nope, I was simply sitting in the grocery store parking lot talking to Him about it and BOOM! It was done.  I'm not saying I didn't have to decide to walk it out. I had to make the decision not to buy any more, to not give in to the cravings.  The difference that time was I had submitted it to Him and I was walking in His strength.  He had done the work in me to cause me to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose.  It was not accomplished by my struggling against it, the work was done as I simply spent time with Him.  I stayed on the wheel and the potter did His work. 

So this week my goal is to act more like a big ol lump of clay!  I will attempt to remain on his wheel no matter how fast it spins.  I will remind myself of the times I jumped off that wheel only to go splat on the floor. 

I don't know what's going on in your life, but I have a feeling you are probably on His wheel too, most of us are.  I pray that when you start to get dizzy and the world starts to spin and you are feeling Him molding you, forming you, creating you to be what you were meant to be, that you stay put!  Stop trying to will yourself into His image and get to beholding your way into it.  Spend time with Him, rest in Him.  Relaxing into Him is the best way to stay out of His way and let Him work! 

Till next time, I'll be here, beholding, creating, giving my glue gun a work out and trying to stay put on His wheel.  So, the next time someone calls you a dizzy blonde, look them straight in the eye, smile and say "Why thank you very much!"

Soaked in His blessings,
Spokenfor