Hello all! I apologize for not blogging in awhile! This blog is very special because I have asked one of my best friends, Nicole, to share her heart and be our guest blogger. The Lord really placed something on her heart, so be blessed! :)
I would first like to say that Lauren Branz (LB Star) is one of the most fantastic girls I know. She is encouraging, beautiful, joyful, and kind and she is a phenomenal friend. I greatly appreciate the opportunity to write a little something for her blog! I’m honored. Truly.
With that honor has come a little pressure, I have to admit! I hope that you can be encouraged by this message.
I have found that the Lord speaks through me the most clearly through writing. When I physically write with pen on paper, it’s like He is talking through my pen. So when I was thinking of what to write for this blog that is what I did. I turned on some worship music and just wrote.
The song “Give Me Faith” by Elevation Worship began to play. Every other time I listened to this song I really only paid attention to the chorus. But this time the verse caught my attention. It says:
“I need You to soften my heart and break me apart. I need You to open my eyes and see that You’re shaping my life.”
When I heard these words I saw this picture of hands molding clay. I’m no artist or expert in pottery so I’m just going off memories of 8th grade art class. But from what I can recollect of making bowls and mugs in junior high, if I didn’t keep molding the clay it would dry up and be tough to re-shape. If I wanted to change the shape I would have to break up the clay and pretty much start over.
This is so much like our lives. The bible itself says in Isaiah 64:8, “…We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work or your hand.” Just like the clay I was working with in art class, the Lord has to constantly mold and shape us so we do not become hard. So that our hearts stay soft.
Sometimes we need broken apart. Our clay self needs softened. Or maybe even to be made new. When we are being broken, when the Lord is shaping us, it can be uncomfortable. He’s breaking us. In those times I pray that He opens your eyes to see the good that is happening. As the song puts it, “open my eyes and see that You’re shaping my life.”
It is so exciting to me that whether my clay self if broken, whole, shapeless, or cool-looking, it doesn’t matter because its in God’s hands and that is all that matters! Who cares what it looks like if the creator of the universe is holding it! Find comfort in the Lord holding you, forming you, giving you life.
Like James said, “Consider it pure joy when you face trials because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance!”
Allow God to soften your heart and break you apart. Give thanks in times of trial. You can’t prune a fruitless tree. So if you are being pruned, you must have been fruitful…in other words, you’re doing something right! But now you may need trimmed for the next season. And you have nothing to fear because you’re in His hands. Literally.
Be encouraged.
Nicole
