November 23

“[God] did create us.  He is still longing to bring us to perfection.  Hand Him your heart.  The pressure of His dear fingers on the hard places may bring pain at first.  But if we are not willing to bear this pain at the touch of His hand, we are wasting the Calvary-pain in His heart for us.”  Eugenia Price, S.P.S., 11/1

I have a muscle that runs over the top of my left shoulder that is so taunt that it hurts just to touch it.  Yet I asked my husband to massage it for me.  The pain was excruciating as he kneaded the muscle with his strong hands.  By the time he was done, though, it no longer hurt.  This is what Eugenia is talking about.  We must be willing to endure the pain of having our hard places worked on by God if we ever expect to be freed of them.  It’s not a masochistic willingness, but a trusting willingness.  Because I believed my husband’s hands would unknot that hurting muscle I allowed him to cause more pain than I would have experienced if he’d not touched it.  When God works on our hard places we experience emotional pain often times because we’re so use to being in control.  God takes that control out of our hands, and if we aren’t willing, we will fight His strong Hands.  How much better it would be if we would relax and trust that when He is done things will be better.

“Woe to those who hide deep from the LORD their counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, ‘Who sees us? Who knows us?’  You turn things upside down!  Shall the potter be regarded as the clay; that the thing made should say of its maker, ‘He did not make me’; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding’?”  Isaiah 29:15, 16