Encouragement
God did not design us as sinners. He did not fashion Adam and Eve as corrupt, disbelieving, unfaithful. We’re compromised, venom from Adam’s and our voluntary disbelief snaking through our flesh like errant black threads in white clothing.
Though we’ve tried endlessly, we can’t pull these threads of sin out, so each of us expends great energy to at least appear clean and competent, as if God doesn’t see everything we do and are. Attempting to cover our flaws with impressions of sufficiency, we nail together scraps of wood into a makeshift blind that wouldn’t fool the dumbest duck. Do you feel it trembling, ready to collapse under its own weight? Please, stop and listen!
God is calling to us with every seeming coincidence and “lucky” event to trust him. I know it’s terrifying. Riskier than anything we can imagine, he asks to be entrusted with our hope, hope that’s been chafed raw and missed when we’ve invited others to help with our burden. If you’re like me, in those times, hurt, you’ve pulled the load again up onto your back, less some faith and heavier for it, resignation solidifying. But here’s the difference in this moment – Jesus, the one inviting us, really can carry all of it. He wants to. He initiated the offer. It’s not an imposition nor is it evading responsibility to pass it to him; in fact he isn’t offering just to take our burden but to trade for his which is much lighter. But each of us has to start with trust that what he tells us is true. This is exactly the same place Adam and Eve stood, the same opportunity to believe God or not.
Listen within – the faint pull in your heart, deep beneath all the scars of disillusionment, is urging trust in his offer. Your design recognizes the voice of its designer. Though it may not feel it, you can muster the seed of hope and faith it takes to finally be found as you are, without rickety contraptions to hide behind. Listen without – the lyrics of Creation are whispering in unison with his love, beckoning us all to reject the friendly ache of lies and leap into the cutting, frigid pool of truth. Once immersed, his bracing holiness draws the dark poison from our hearts. It’s excruciating relief, like finally pulling a deep splinter from inflamed flesh.
Some of the foreign threads in our clothes are longer and more tightly embedded than others, but they are foreign. The closer we remain to his heart, the more he diminishes the power of disbelief. With time and the Holy Spirit’s encouraging arm around our shoulders God heals the damage from the venomous invasion. He exalts us, children bearing his image, and we feel again his pleasure that twinkled in his eye on the sixth day of Creation.
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” – Jesus, Matthew 11:28-30
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” – Genesis 1:27
“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” – Genesis 1:31
All Scripture Taken From English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.
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