12/29/09

Heart wide open.

While scrolling through my facebook homepage I came across this quote on someone else's facebook profile.
I appreciated its message and thought I'd pass it on.

"... you cannot free yourself from a problem by shutting your eyes to it. To free yourself from a problem you have to acknowledge it and face it with your eyes and heart open."


It is SO important to keep not only our eyes open but also our hearts. In every crisis, situation or problem we can completely miss what God is doing by having a hard closed heart. When our hearts and minds are closed we are unable to learn and grow from each new unpleasant situation we face.

Even though it is usually difficult, we can use that time to seek God and lay bare before him our own hearts, plans and motives. Allow Him to spring clean and bring light to those dark corners in our life, sometimes things that we may even not be aware of. It is a humbling experience to be cleansed by the light of a Holy God but only by doing so can we truly be free.

It is when we are convinced of our own wisdom and righteousness.... we are most likely to fall. We ,on our own, can only look at any situation through the lenses of our own baggage. The lenses of fear, guilt, unforgiveness, shame, pride, bitterness, and even our insecurities distort our view. Only when we completely let go of our own agenda and allow the Spirit of God to work in us, can we be like Christ in that particular situation. Only then can our eyes be opened to what God is doing.

Closing our eyes, hardening our hearts, or sitting back convinced of our own wisdom are all ways to ensure that we will not be free. We will end up in direct opposition to what God wants to do through us and around us. The problem will grow , sometimes silently like a cancer, until it destroys us and those around us ....unless it is looked at, surrendered to God, acknowledged before others, and laid bare to be cleansed and forgiven. Only then do we loose the chains of bondage that keep us from Gods perfect will.

Lord, bring your healing, light and truth to the very center of my heart and life. Cleanse me of any thought, any attitude, any motive that is not purely of you. Give me your wisdom and your strength. Give me the courage to face this life with honesty, grace and love. Even when it hurts. Give me your eyes and your heart in this situation. amen.


"Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God. " John 3:19-21

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