Carry

Ok, when Pam, my bible study teacher started referring to idols, I thought, wait a minute, I don't have any golden statues tucked away at home that I bow down to, I do not swear by a force that would upstage my God, I don't depend on a home staged alter and light candles and such. But then she started peeling the onion, so to speak, one layer at a time, talking about the things that I subconsciously carry around with me.
Things like, anxieties, sins, burdens, injustices, and then she began relating them to idols. Now how can that be?

And she explained: For example, when we are anxious, it is because we have lost control of one situation or another and we want that control back. And instead of trusting God to appropriate the situation at hand, his way, we are vying for the control thus making an idol out of need for control instead of quietly retreating and laying the situation at the feet of Jesus and letting him carry it. Same thing with sins, our mess ups.

Instead of allowing the forgiveness of Jesus to flow through us and upon us, we hold onto them and allow them to be our story instead of allowing Jesus the glory to override them, and help us to get on a right track. Injustices, when someone has done you wrong, your power has been compromised. Somehow, someway, someone has managed to impose on your territory and has pulled switches that have shorted you out. I am so guilty of this....I want to maintain the power, but Christ calls us to let it go, and let him be in charge of the switches. Retreat, retaliation and reprimand only serve to be blankets over that which has caused us pain. When we carry those hurts and pains we are allowing those to be our story and our idols demanding our constant attention.

She used the term "bow down" all through her lesson. And as I thought through it during the day, I realized that I do bow down to control, to power, and to regrets of the mess ups I have made. And I spend a lot of energy and focus on trying to change things that are not even remotely in my control. I hold so tight to them that my knuckles would be white if the vision was one you could see. My favorite quote of the lesson was when Pam said: "God calls us to hop out of our story and hop into his."

God's story is one of love, hope, grace, strength and forgiveness. And at this I have to ask "What is my story filled with?" And which story would I rather be a character in? We all have a need for approval, power, comfort ( be it love or respect) and control. Those are all needs that we bow down to and if we are not careful and on guard, we will allow those needs to be a lame substitution for God's story of trust and provision.We cannot and do not have the means to provide for all these needs to ourselves, and for that matter no one else can do that for us except for Jesus himself. We can try as we may to demand and manipulate and maybe some of the time we might be successful in our attempts but on a full time basis, no way. Within each of us is a heart built alter to God. When we sacrifice all of those things that we cannot control, that we do not have power over and that have brought us pain and discomfort, it is then that we will have the freedom to live life in His joy and in His peace.

If we do hop into God's story, then we will reap the benefits of his love, hope, strength, wisdom, grace and forgiveness.But in order to hop into his story we have to free ourselves from the bulky baggage and entrust him to carry those things which weigh us down. I love the verse that Pam ended with last week. She said most of all, above the burdens, the anxieties, and the sins, God wants to carry you.

Isaiah 46:4

4 Even to your old age and gray hairs
I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

God doen't take days off, or vacations, or put us on hold. He is there for us at all times. We may not see his working hand, but we can be assured that he has us in his scope. Not a moment goes by that we are not in his sight and he is busy for our good, using our experiences and our adversities for his purposes and his glory, as he grows us closer to himself.

Dear Lord, what a blessing to each of us that you are willing to carry us and include us as part of your everlasting story. Thank you.


Praise God wherever you are and whatever situation He has allowed you to be in . . . His glory will shine through!

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