Burning Bridges Part 2

Psalm 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

So…anybody read Proverbs 3 this week? I was asked why I chose this particular chapter of scripture in relation to the post. After reading it every day I realized that for me, it was just what spoke to me during those trying times of change. It showed me the true importance of not leaning on my own understanding in life but to fully lean on God. So many times when we are required to change something we get defensive on how it would be beneficial to us. Many times, maybe I should say most times, it isn’t until after the storm has passed that we realize why God placed so much importance on it. One of my favorite versus in this chapter are vs. 5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. If I ever needed anything at that point in my life it was a straight path. I spent so much time riding the craziness of the winding roads and being so worried about not knowing what was coming next that when I did jump on the straight and narrow it took me forever to adjust to the freedom and consistency that was provided. I read a quote out of a bible study a few weeks ago and it has stuck with me, the writer simply said this, “There is more freedom in boundaries.” In this society do we even know what it means to have freedom or boundaries anymore? Do we really have freedom in the way that we are pressured to look, act, spend and accept things? I have talked with so many that are shocked at how easy it is for us to become so desensitized to plain black and white sin all around us. I ask the question, “What happens as a result of all of this?” My answer, we began to water down what the Word of God says. He will not accept the ways of the world and we are not to conform to them. We cannot package God in our pretty little boxes and expect Him to accept the things in our life that He did not put there.  We can give many names to these “bridges” that we keep crossing in our lives. But the simple truth is, they become masters over us and the end result of not letting them go is bondage, some for the rest of our lives. I know I’ve said this before but honestly it is just time to call it what it is, get some serious healing and redemption over it and move on. I really never like to try and use a passage of scripture and leave parts of it out to make a point but I thought I would share this with you. I remember about two weeks after God had given me “The List” I sat down to go over it again. At that point I wasn’t ready to bust out the torches but I was willing for the first time to fully trust Him over it. It was the strangest feeling but I knew that He was serious. So like many other times I grabbed my bible and prayed for Him to give me an active word…this is what he gave me. Isaiah 30:15b, In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength. (vs.18) Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!...(vs19b) you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it. Then you will defile your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered in gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you!” Hmm, your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered in gold. That is exactly what I did. The things in my life that were so important to me became my idols even my sin, in some way I worshiped them or I at least placed them higher than anything else and certainly higher than God. – So whatever it is to us, whatever we call it…sin, idols, masters, strongholds, learned behaviors, slavery,  generational curses, poor choices, and hopeless situations, dead in roads with no way out…whatever it is, I will promise you this. ” There is freedom in discernment, freedom in change and freedom in deciding to trust Him and walk in His ways.  I know this one. I also know that letting go of some of these things may seem like death to you. But many burned bridges later I’m still standing and I am stronger and wiser from it. And you know what…I can say this with everything in me...it is for freedom that Christ has set us free! I once struggled over so many things that God was requiring but for some reason I feared not listening more than I feared the change. I guess it was my first dose of godly fear, and I grabbed a hold of it and haven’t looked back. This life is wild, isn’t it? So what about you? I would love to hear from you, of course no personal information about your dealings, but maybe just some things you may be feeling about it.

2 Corinthians  4:7-9 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this

all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. – No matter what the enemy has told you, you are not abandoned, you are not destroyed.