Thursday, December 12, 2013

Stretching Your Tent Cords

When you start having kids, everything begins to change. You move out of your apartment with a gym into a house with a yard.  You trade your sporty car in for a boxy minivan.  Your magical vacation to the Bahamas becomes a week at the Magic Kingdom. 

Everything begins to morph as you make room for your growing family - just as your single life went under reconstruction when you married, the wrecking ball and work crew are recommissioned as children begin to arrive. 

The prophet Isaiah put it this way, "Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes" (Isa 54:2).  In other words, make room and adapt for your new additions. 

Of course, Isaiah wasn't really talking about family growth, that was just an analogy every parent would get. He was talking about the adjusting required when God takes up residence with us. Our heart has to be enlarged, our willingness to serve has to increase, our generosity must stretch.  We can't stay the same when the Spirit of God moves into our hearts. 

If your life, your capacity to love, your ability to forgive, your willingness to be called upon, does not change when you accepted Christ into your heart, you may need to do a heart check. If you are still the same then you haven't changed - seem legit?  

Accepting Christ begins a process of extreme makeover called "sanctification" (1 Thess 5:23), which reconstructs us as disciples into "new creations" (2 Cor 5:17).  The "You'll just have to accept me as I am," has to be set aside for, "He will begin with me as I am as He restores me to what I was meant to be.'

So, how is the new construction coming along?  Jus' Askn. 

Jus' Askn. 

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