All Dolled Up

"Stop putting up with what Jesus delivered you from. Renew your thinking."

THE HOLE FOUGHT AGAINST THE DIRT that surrounded it, making the hole bigger than it should be, and the dirt, gleeful at being released, flew this way and that until the hole collapsed. It just couldn’t do this anymore. There was no structure these days, nothing solid to lean on. Today’s holes … Sigh. A modern hole should be all concrete and asphalt, set perfectly in place. Or one of those wild holes, tucked away in the grass just waiting for a leg to find it. You might be a redneck hole if.

Fill in the hole and life seems boring. There are people who constantly search for holes. They don’t know what to do if there isn’t some shortcoming, something at fault, in their life. I once had a series of shirts with tiny holes in the same place. I never did figure out what caused them, but knowing they might be there, I spent way too much time focused on them. The truth is GOD WANTS US TO SEE HIM and not the holes. We should go into holes or around the holes are past the holes knowing God in us is way bigger and smarter and stronger than what we are facing. The holes should seem small by comparison.

“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)

Sucked into a sinkhole? God has a ladder. Or a bird. Maybe He’ll fly you out on an eagle. Step in a pothole? God heals legs and ankles. Just keep walking, the Word of God in your voice, and you’ll leave that place far behind. Or maybe it’s not a hole but a canyon. There literally is no way across. Except there’s A CROSS that says there is. Jesus bridged the gap and left the bridge so that we could get out of anything and go forward onto the other side. We can because He did. He left the bridge and released the power that built the bridge. Suit up, Christian, we’re going hole-diving.

We’re sent to pick apart the hole, tear it up and use the dirt to build a temple. Fill the temple with the power of the Holy Spirit and lift others from the valleys the enemy’s got them locked in. Because the famous verse in Psalm 23 says we walk THROUGH the valley, in one side and out the other, WITH THE SHEPHERD. We are not to fear the evil. He delivers us from evil (Ps121). He sees that no evil befalls us (Ps91). To God, these holes are nothing, and He’s raised us up to sit with Him in heavenly places far above all the holes. The devil focuses on the holes. We’re meant to see them from God’s perspective.

Where’d all that water go? A local lake got a sinkhole that drained the lake dry, water, fish, all of it disappeared overnight. Florida sits on a water table. You can, in fact, scuba dive through a great deal of it. Many residents have wells in their yard, pulling water up from beneath the soil. If the water table drains dry in an area, the soil above it collapses, and everything on top of the soil is destroyed. But here’s the point. Do you think the people of Florida walk around looking for sinkholes? No. Are they possible? Yes. But we don’t waste our time planning for disaster holes.

Why are you looking for trouble? Why spend day and night searching for something to fall apart? Stop putting up with what Jesus delivered you from. Renew your thinking. That’s what we’re told to do, to turn everything over to God and walk by faith, to not react to problems or, even, create problems. We’ve made designer hole-fields. We’ve decorated the problems with glitter and lace. But a pretty problem is still a problem and if you dwell on it too long, it will suck you in for good. That’s not God, my friend. He created mountains and valleys aware there’d be holes and gave man the strength in Him to overcome them and to do so with joy! There’s a fantastic thought! We not only can fill in the holes and move on, we can rejoice in doing it!

I don’t know about you, but I’m going out to find my shovel. Fill in some holes. Mine. Yours. My neighbor’s. For in that does God’s mercy to me show through me. And there’s one less hole.

Luke 10:29-37, Remedy
(29) But the lawyer wanted a loophole to justify his bigotry, so he asked Jesus, “But who is my neighbor?”
(30) Jesus gave this answer: “A man was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by thieves. They beat him, took all he had, and left him naked and bleeding, and nearly dead, on the road.
(31) When a pastor came down the road and saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side and walked on by.
(32) Likewise, a member of the church leadership team came by and saw him, then crossed to the other side and walked on by.
(33) But then came a Samaritan, a member of a race hated by the Jews. When he saw the man lying there, he had compassion for him.
(34) He went over to him, cleaned his wounds, and applied salve and bandages. Then he lifted him onto his donkey, took him to an inn, and tended him.
(35) The next day he paid the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him for me. I will compensate you for any additional costs when I return.’
(36) “In your judgment, which of these three was a neighbor to the man who was mugged by the thieves?”
(37) The lawyer begrudgingly replied, “The one who was merciful to him.” “Go and live just like that,” Jesus instructed him.


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com