Under Construction!

“For the word of God
is quick,
and powerful,
and sharper
than any twoedged sword,
piercing even to
the dividing asunder
of soul and spirit,
and of the joints and marrow,
and is a discerner
of the thoughts and intents
of the heart.”
Hebrews 4:12

So did you make any New Year's resolutions?  Or should I ask have you already broken the New Year's resolutions that you did make?  I don't make New Year's resolutions.  I can't remember ever making resolutions for the new year, mainly because I knew that by now I would have broken them or forgotten what they were!!!

It's like a Minion quote
which I saw on facebook

"I could give up chocolate,
but I'm not a quitter!!!"

For the past few years, I would ask the Lord at the beginning of a new year to give me one word which I could focus on throughout that particular year.  But this year, I decided to do something different.  I asked the Lord instead of giving me one word, to give me one verse.  A verse which, by His grace, I need to put into practice and obey more in my life.  So as I sat before the Lord with my journal in one hand and my pen in the other, the Lord definitely was faithful to give me my verse.  And just as quickly as I finished writing that one verse in my journal, along came the second one, which was quickly followed by the third one and the fourth one!!!

WAIT!  Please don't tune me out just yet.  Relax, I'm not going to share all four verses with you. But hoping to share some of them in future posts. 

Okay, I gotta be TOTALLY honest.  When the Lord gave me the first verse, I was like, "okay, this is great", but when we got to the third and fourth ones, I was saying, "Lord, how about we go back to the one word for the year because that was much simpler and a lot easier!"

And then of course I began thinking, "WOW,  I must really need to grow A LOT in my spiritual walk!  Lord, I thought I was doing rather well!  But since You gave me four verses to 'work on' throughout this year, I must REALLY be missing the mark BIG time!"
Can anyone say...
P  R  I  D  E?
OUCH, that hurt!!  But it was, oh, so true.

YES, the Lord has brought me a VERY LONG way since I trusted Christ as my personal Saviour on May 16th, 1989.  The day I got saved, believe it or not, I wasn't even aware that Noah and the Ark was in the Bible!  I knew NOTHING!  The only thing the Bible in our home did, as I was growing up, was lay on the coffee table and collect dust, and record the dates of births, deaths and weddings!

But as I continued to sit before the Lord that day, He gently reminded me, that although He had indeed brought me a long way, there was still so much He had for me to learn.  He had so much more He wanted to share with me about His unfailing faithfulness.  So much more He wanted to show me about extending His unconditional grace to others.  So much shaping and molding for Him to do so that I could mirror MORE OF HIS SON AND LESS OF ME. 

"Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:"  Philippians 1:6

I'm sure you have driven by a home or other building which was somewhere in the midst of "the breaking ground point" and "the occupancy point".  And there may have been a sign on the property that said, "Under Construction".

Well this is how I see it!  We as believers in Jesus Christ, are also "under construction".   We are in the process of being in between "the breaking ground point", which represents the day we trusted Christ as our personal Saviour, and "the occupancy point", which represents the day we enter Heaven!  And during that “in between time”, we are under construction by The Master Builder!  But we must allow The Builder to chip away at us and tear down certain walls which are standing in His way, so that He can build stronger and more effective walls to be used for His purposes.  We must give Him access to EVERY room so that He can build in us a vessel fit for His use.

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”   Galatians 2:20

So on that day when the Lord was giving to me verse after verse, once I closed my mouth and stopped asking the Lord why He gave me so many verses for the year.  When I finally stopped murmuring and complaining.

"Do all things without murmurings and disputings:"  Philippians 2:14

This DOES happen to be one of my verses for 2016!!

When I was totally quiet and actually listening to God's reasons for the four different verses, I'm really surprised that He didn't give to me 40 verses or 400 verses instead of merely four verses!

But I can rest assured that throughout the year, He will definitely put His finger on many more verses and say, "Barb, here's another one!"  In fact, it happened just yesterday as I was listening to a sermon from Ecclesiastes.

So now my list is up to five ... and counting!

Photo by ChrisL_AK
Photo by ChrisL_AK

And I am SO THANKFUL!

SO.  VERY.  THANKFUL.

Thankful the Lord loves me so much that He's still working on me.  

Thankful He loves me enough to want to change me
and keep on changing me. 

The Lord didn’t save me to keep me the same way He found me!

He longs for me to be “what I ought to be” FOR HIM!!

"Father, thank You that You desire to continue to do a constant work of change in us from the moment we call upon Jesus as our Saviour, right up until we take our final breath here on this earth and step into Heaven.  Lord, may we always be willing and accepting to trust and obey whatever it may be which You choose to place Your finger upon in our life, knowing that it's for our good and ultimately for Your glory.  Lord, please keep on making us what we ought to be for YOU!  In Jesus' Name, Amen."

The following video
was recorded in 1986!
But the words
and the TRUTH
remain the same!
ENJOY!

 


If you have been helped by this post and think it could be helpful to someone you know, please share this post on the social network of your choice for me.

All you have to do is click one of the buttons below.

May God Bless You,

Barb

2 Comments

  • Cindyann (aka Mrs. Rasquinha)

    January 13, 2016 at 9:19 am Reply

    Good morning Barb. Had to laugh. Thought your site was "Under Construction", but no - it words great! Congrats! Another thought provoking message. I know the Cathedrals but did not know they sang this "children's song". Same way that Jesus Loves Me is for adults too. Thank you!

  • Barb

    January 13, 2016 at 10:29 am Reply

    Cindyann
    That's funny! I never even gave it a second thought that people would see "The Under Construction" sign and think that the site was down to have work down on it .... but good observation!!
    Thank you for your words of encouragement.
    You are a blessing to me
    Love ya, Barb ♡♡♡

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