A Display of His Splendor...

That "Breaking Free" study...written by Beth Moore and God...WOW. I have completed the study and the road has been littered with broken chains. It was arduous (still is, this journey), very thought provoking, very self searching, very UGLY at times...but as I stand at the end of this stretch of road, and before embarking further along the road God has called me to walk, I look back and take in the carnage. I assess the twisted links of chain, the varying thicknesses of links....the lengths of chain....and I am GRATEFUL.

Grateful to the God of heaven for showing me as I persevered with this study, things I've glanced at before, in my life and dismissed...I'll take care of that another day, it doesn't really bother me so much.

Grateful for Him showing me tough, embedded thick chain links that have been happy to hold me captive and reside in me for YEARS. In an odd way, those are the ones that have been COMFORTABLE..I'm used to those shackles digging into my skin.

Grateful for Him showing me pieces of chain securing me down in areas of my life that I was not EVEN AWARE OF. I was shocked.

Grateful for His grace in removing the chains. No yanking and pulling here! Some of them go deep, and to be abrupt with them would just kill us. He does it with such priceless amazing love and ever so gently removes the offending metal.

He watches us shuffle through life with chains dragging everywhere. He knows that we could do so much more for him if we would simply let go of the chains, that we would be so much happier in this world without the extra weight on our spirits, but He is a gentleman and He waits for us to 'SEE' them ourselves...asking for His help to remove them...and of course, He is right there to grind that chain into dust. If we let him. That's the problem with comfortable chains, the ones that have molded us from childhood...we WANT to be free, but to be free means to NOT have that comfortable bondage to lean on. It means having to lean into God as He reprograms that space in your life that once held captivity. It means CHANGE. And sometimes change is scary to our human hearts and minds.

I am walking out one of these times where a life long chain has been removed...I am leaning SO HARD into Him. I keep telling myself, God can take my leaning on Him this hard. He can. And of course, He can.

Now at the end of this study, I am able to see FREEDOM in so many areas of my life. Walking it out is kind of tough. At times the chains seem more "sure", again that comfort thing...but with God's help, I will not go back to look for the broken links and try to piece together a blanket of bondage. NO. Besides, daughters of THE King, don't wear chain. They wear royal robes flowing and swirling around their feet...they are light on their feet and run and dance in fields of grace, and make daisy chains for their hair...that is what a daughter of the king looks like...and every day, I take on that likeness more and more, by the grace of God, my Daddy the King.

I have personalized this scripture, it means alot to me and I learned it during this study. Take it and personalize it for yourself. It's powerful. It's His desire for you too.

"Jeanette will be called an oak of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of His splendor." --Isaiah 61:3b

I want to spend all the days I have left on this planet displaying His splendor...hearing Him and doing it, reading His word and living it, speaking His word when and where He moves me to it. And in so doing, I pray to be a mighty oak displaying the God of heaven's splendor. It's all I want...to radiate Him.