Broken Glass

We have one week left of Bible study and I have to say that I'm going to miss these girls when it's over!  I have had such a great time and have learned so much during these times together.  We started a project last week that we finished up today as it pertains to the idols in our lives.  

Each person chose something to bring in last week to break.  Now I would love to say that I came up with all of this idea on my own but I didn't.  I got the breaking idea from another blog that I follow called Bring the Rain the Story of Audrey Caroline but the application I did come up with myself (technically it was God but that's a whole other story for another time!).  Anyway, the idea was to break something as an act of walking away from your idol.  Think about this, women + breakable object + hammer= really cheap therapy!!!!!  It was actually quite fun...

Anyway, so last Tuesday and Thursday that's what we did.  We spent time pounding on breakable items as we committed to give those areas of our lives over to God.  The broken pieces that resulted from our hammering served to represent what our idols can do to us if we allow ourselves to continue to live for and worship them.  We end up in pieces not quite sure of how to put everything back where it needs to go.  Essentially, our idols will break us if we're left in their hold long enough.

So this week, we took our pieces and began to glue them together.  We pieced them together not to put our idols back together because the pieces aren't the idol.  The pieces are us and the glue that begins to fix the mess of pieces is God.

So to help you get the full picture of what we did, I thought I would share my object with you along with a story that I put together in hopes of bringing this whole project full circle.  So here goes.....

Psalm 130:

“Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord;

O Lord, hear my voice.

Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.”

So the process begins, He sorts through the pieces and decides just where to begin. 

“But with you there is forgiveness….and in

his word I put my hope.”

He finds two pieces and glues them together.

“with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.”

Another pieces is added.

We begin to slowly see what is happening and we want so badly to turn from our idols and never turn back.  God has different plans; to turn away would be too easy.  Why?

As women, we’re usually pretty good at masking what’s going on inside by making the outside look pleasing for a time.  After a time though, you begin to implode, sending pieces of yourself crashing to the floor.  What looked perfect on the outside is now in complete shambles leaving us with little idea of how it got that way.  So God gently guides us to face our idols with a change of heart.

“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean:

I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all of your idols.  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”

A few more pieces are picked up and glued back into place.

The journey is long and we’ve become weak and would like nothing more than to throw in the towel.  This is painful, this is work, this takes perseverance  and some patience on top of that.  I can’t do this anymore and for sure if I knew it would be like this I wouldn’t have signed up for it! 

It’s OK! He says. 

Jesus says:

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

1 Corinthians 12:9

Again, more pieces get added.

Just trust in Me I will help you in this.  Let’s start with baby steps because I can see that trusting is not easy.  Trust me in the small things and you’ll soon see that you can trust me for the big things too.

“I lift my eyes up to the hills-

where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip-

he who watches over you will not slumber;

indeed, he who watches over Israel

will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord watches over you-

the Lord is your shade at your right hand;

the sun will not harm you by day,

nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all harm-

he will watch over your life;

the Lord will watch over your coming and going

both now and forevermore.”

Psalm 121

So piece by piece it goes, the One that created you in your mother’s womb to begin with does it again.  With a mighty but gentle hand He puts you back together again, according to the plan that He has for your life.  He continues carefully and diligently piece after piece until “you are His new creation, the old has gone and the new has come.”  Yes, there are cracks and divots but in His eyes you’re perfect just the way you are.  He made you and He doesn’t make mistakes.  Yes, we make mistakes and we screw up but He loves us with an everlasting love. 

It’s at times like this, Satan would want us to believe there’s no possible way that God would put us back together and then use us for his glory.  After all, we’re cracked and broken.  Brittle to the touch!  Who would want to use a girl and her ugly story for God’s glory?  So in those times (and they’ll come!), pray in the same way that the man in Mark 9:24 did:

“Everything is possible for him who believes.  Immediately

the boy’s father exclaimed,

“I do believe!  Help me in my unbelief!”