Sunday, October 26, 2014

When God gets out His Shovel

Have you ever said wow to God while discovering some amazing new thing, a word you haven't quite seen before just that way. Something where your eyes opened...Have you ever said to Him "Wow God! That is really nice, really new and really cool how you did that." It makes you want more of Him...so we are drawn to study more read more...really dig- each step more interesting still- and more "thank you God's" come out of it but I am asking if you've been so unprepared for what happens next that you can't find the words, have you ever been so blindsided by Him when you thought you had something new and that was that- but little did you know there was more to come.

I never saw Him coming...

This side of earth has such a limited perspective when God is above the clouds and that is the cap on what I can see and be fascinated with. That is why God is supernatural and I am here in the natural trying to get it in my pea sized brain. It is like trying to stare at an eclipse, like trying to fit a thousand years into only one of my days....I am not big enough- yet I forget that as I pursue. I am captivated by His teaching and yet this time so unprepared by the depth of His work....

I liken His work this time to a quiet approach I never saw coming- this shiny sharp edged shovel comes at me and I never saw it coming. He is at the doorstep, the first blow feels piercing, just like that it hits me, sharp, the words of God pierce my heart. It hits me and all I can say "oh, Lord this word is so much more real than I first thought it to be," my response in lack. I had knowledge then but now I have lived it, I had words and a beautiful picture from you to me but now I have life in my hands. The words He gives us are all as deep and lovely as they can be but I wonder how often we only see the surface? The nicety of the outside layer (and I am not meaning we miss something necessarily, no nothing was missed- we hear a word, need it and treasure it) but God is so much bigger still so what else lies beneath we could search out.

So back to God with the shovel at my heart. I had to say in retrospect I didn't know we were doing that God, as He pushed in with His foot on the shovel braced against my heart and in His strength the ground gave away and was lifted up and turned over. All this in a moment connecting things to lovely for me to understand through this disheveling of my heart as it was once contained. You see sometimes it takes getting messy before we can get free. Sometimes it takes getting messy with God before we know there is something we should really be desiring to get free from. Then he turns the soil lifting and turning again layer after layer. It is being worked. God was digging deeper internally, he was going for growth. He had to get the shovel out in order to get the soil turned. Through my journals and notes, through my dreams and His beautiful scripture, through conversations and small signs; He took me on a journey from the outside- in. There's the word of God and how completely valuable it is to study and then there is action with God, letting Him take the shovel to the heart and cause some pain, move some things around and turn it all around to get at the good stuff.

Sometimes life has covered our hearts with years of blowing dirt, years of cover collected as if it has found a home. In nature, soil erosion occurs when the soil moves in the wind or rain and doesn't stop until it finds a suitable obstruction on which to rest. All to often in life our hearts for various reasons become the "obstruction" blocking the path and making a nice home on which "life's dirt" can collect and pile. The problem with this process is over time we do not understand the damaging effects of all this bad top soil on the heart. When we allow our hearts left undusted and the soil not turned over the result is difficult growing conditions. It may be ugly, embarrassing, painful, difficult, unwanted and the like but it is worth it to Let God yield the shovel to the heart and move some things underneath to the top and move the top to a place of healing and growth. God alone yields the tool, we alone hold the restraint or the acquiesce to His work.

Lord thank you for getting the shovel and not giving me any warning.

If you can pray this prayer above with me please go ahead and comment on how God has taken the shovel to your heart to show you more meaning in His word, deeper truth from the surface down and how he turned the soil through the inner workings of His heart to yours.

2 comments:

  1. I have been wrapping my own pea sized brain (LOL) around this phrase you mentioned: "This side of earth has such a limited perspective when God is above the clouds and that is the cap on what I can see and be fascinated with. That is why God is supernatural and I am here in the natural trying to get it in my pea sized brain." I think this is why, after all of the stories that make up the Old Testament, God sent His only Son here to earth, to show all of us His love!!!! People just were not understanding what God was all about...even back then, He was some Omnipotent Being....and unless there was a burning bush or seas needing to be parted, folks just understand His true love for us. So, Jesus came and showed us what God is all about...by doing God-like things. What gets me is how even then, folks STILL did not understand, and destroyed what they did not know. and this phrase sums it all up so nicely: "You see sometimes it takes getting messy before we can get free. Sometimes it takes getting messy with God before we know there is something we should really be desiring to get free from." May peace be with you and all of us who need to be shown our messiness in order to get it cleaned up!!!

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  2. I love your revelation about Jesus being sent to give us better understanding of God's love. I am so thankful the Lord keeps track of us and takes us back even throughout our messiness. Amen to peace and being cleaned up!

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