Smashing What I Created

I have strength for all things 

in Christ Who empowers me 

[I am ready for anything and 

equal to anything through Him 

Who infuses inner strength into me; 

I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency]. 

Philippians 4:13 amp

 

•

This calf you worship, O Israel, 

was crafted by your own hands! 

It is not God! 

Therefore, it must be smashed to bits.

Hosea 8:6 nlt

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We call Abraham "father" not because he 

got God's attention by living like a saint, 

but because God made something out of Abraham 

when he was a nobody. 

Isn't that what we've always read in Scripture, 

God saying to Abraham, "I set you up as father of many peoples"? 

Abraham was first named "father" and then became a father because  

he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: 

raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing.  

When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, 

deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do 

but on what God said he would do. 

Romans 4:17-18 msg

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...when they knew and recognized Him as God, 

they did not honor and glorify Him as God 

or give Him thanks. 

But instead they became futile and 

godless in their thinking 

[with vain imaginings, foolish reasoning, 

and stupid speculations] 

and their senseless minds were darkened. 

Romans 1:21 amp

I am an idol craftswoman.

All along I thought I was "doing it right" or at least trying.

I have been setting my eyes, my focus, my attention on how much I want to be a beautiful, godly woman, with my home in order as well as my life, and my children's lives. Yesterday, I was determined that I was going to get myself disciplined (in a day...) and get my home clean, organized and sparkling. On top of that, the kids and I would do devotions, get school accomplished, and whip all their character flaws into submission... as well as my own.

I can laugh now, as I type that out, but let me tell you, by 8:30 last night, it was not a pretty picture. I was a big crabby mess.

This morning as I sat before the Lord, I knew that I needed Him to show me what was going on. I asked Him to. And the swiftness and the unexpectedness of His answer brought tears streaming down my face.

Before I even finished asking Him to take my mess and show me what He wanted me to see, the words to Hosea 8:6 came into my mind.

This calf you worship, O Israel, was crafted by your own hands! It is not God! Therefore, it must be smashed to bits. -- Hosea 8:6 nlt

Have I made an idol of the picture I have in my mind of who I should be, what I think I should say and act like and feel and desire?

Wow. I really didn't see that.

And yet, our loving, never-forsaking Father, had allowed me to see, and start sinking down into, my failure. He was allowing me to see the impossibility, the falseness of what I was trying to sculpt - to create - in my life.

As I am typing this out, I am realizing that what has been going on in me is nothing new. It seems to be a pattern with me... not too long ago this was my share... l And I'm sure that if you spend some time looking through my blog posts, you will find many more that are just like this.

So, I have been an idol craftswoman.

But the Spirit of the Most High God lives in me.

He has called me His own.

He has called me a new creation.

When I refuse to honor Him and glorify Him and give Him thanks in my life, that is when I become futile in my thinking (Romans 1:21). That is when I start crafting a new idol - or a replica of the same old one I seem to create.

I am so thankful for His patience with me. I am thankful for the promise that He, Who began this good work in me, is faithful and will bring this work to completion. (Philippians 1:6)