Let God Chisel

I have started attending a new Bible Study and this weeks lesson was "Let God Chisel."

It is part of the "Unglued" series by Lysa TerKeurst.  While I enjoy book studies, I have to admit that so far, this study is pretty surface level and is not quite hitting home with me.

Last night, however, one thing did stick out. Her example was Michelangelo and how he chiseled away at David. He knew what it was supposed to look like in his mind and he set forth to bring that image out for others to see.

Lysa likened this to how God sees us. We are His workmanship, made for His good which He pre-determined for us. All we have to do is be still and allow God to chisel away until we become what He created us to be and knows we can be, versus what we are right now.  Just like all of the men in the Bible that were not great people before God turned them into people that amazing things for His Kingdom.  Saul persecuted Christians, but God turned him into Paul who brought thousands to Christ! Simon Peter who denied Christ three times and then turned around later and pledged three times that He loved Christ and brought thousands to His saving grace through his own testimony.

So, as the news made it my way yesterday that my Grandpa not only has lung cancer, but he has small-cell inoperable lung cancer, which is the most aggressive form you can get, and the reality of what is to come was solidified.. I found that the words I heard last night were more than appropriate for life right now.

I feel like God had just broken through a barrier that has existed for over 5 years now. He revealed to me something I knew in my head but could not accept in my heart.

I 

have

no

control.

That's not even right.  It is in fact that:

I  do not want control.

I would never have allowed certain things to happen in my life. I would never have allowed my Mom and my mom-in-law to die from cancer in their early 50's. I would never have allowed so much distance between all of my family members that it is almost impossible to have a relationship with my nieces and nephews and siblings. I would never have allowed doubt to creep in. I would never have allowed infertility for so many of my dear friends and family. I would never have allowed miscarriages and the loss of tiny lives.

It has taken me more than 5 years to realize that sometimes we blame or assign responsibility for certain things to God even though in reality, it is our own sin and this fallen world we live in that is the cause of so much pain and heart ache. God never designed it this way. God hurts too! 

God hurts when his children hurt. God desires that not one person should perish. God does not desire rejection. He does not desire death. He does not desire suffering.

He uses all of these things for His glory and He is just, He is righteous and one day those of us who have accepted His grace and gift of salvation... we will see His justice reign and our pain squashed and replaced with unending Joy and perfection how it was meant to be.

So why would I want control? Why do I want to change the un-changeable? God will destroy my pain someday and God feels my pain. He knows we suffer which is why He never intended for sin to be in the picture!

So chisel away God. Chisel away at my soul until I become a picture of you. Take this pain, this hurt, this sadness, this emptiness and use it for your glory. Bring my Grandpa before your throne and heal his heart, even if you choose not to heal his cancer.

Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.