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A
Stone? In
my own journey I have found that God goes into what I call the closet of my
heart, and He begins to clean out things that were buried and hidden.
As He brings out each issue I feel guilty, embarrassed, and
uncomfortable. I would rather He put
it back where He found it and leave it alone.
Yet, He reminds me with a smile that He is not condemning me for what He
is dealing with; there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
He simply wants to see me walk in greater freedom, greater joy, and have
a greater awareness of His presence and peace.
The
process of freedom can be painful. We
do not like the discomfort that comes as God takes us on the journey to healing.
Our flesh cries out in agony because it is hostile to the work of God and
the things that God is working out in us. As
the truth of God becomes manifest in our hearts and minds, it all feels like a
lie. The reality is that what is
true of the flesh is a lie to the Spirit, while the truth of the Spirit feels
like a lie to the flesh. Yet thanks
be to God that we cannot comfortably walk according to the flesh.
Our misery when we attempt to is proof of being a partaker of the Divine
Nature (See 2 Peter 1:3 & 4). “What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give
him a stone? Or if he asks for a
fish, will he give him a serpent? If
you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much
more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”
Matthew 7:9-11 In
the midst of this process, the things God is working out in us feel like a stone
and we wonder how it could ever be bread for us.
In the end, when we see what God has been up to, we rejoice as we partake
of the bread of Life – Jesus. In
the darkness of faith, when everything seemed elusive and impossible, we chose
to believe Him in spite of what we felt. At
that moment we have given Him something that no angel in heaven ever could.
Though not seeing, we have believed. Verses
For Reflection: (see
also 2 Corinthians 4:18, 5:7; Hebrews 11:1; 1 Peter 1:7-9) “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he
who believes in Me shall never thirst. But
I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. All
that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by
no means cast out. “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will,
but the will of Him who sent Me. This
is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose
nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And
this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes
in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
John 6:35-40 “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness,
and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat
of it and not die. I am the living
bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live
forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the
life of the world.” John 6:48-51 |
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