Isaiah 54:2-3, 17 “Enlarge the place of your tent,
stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords,
strengthen your stakes.
For you will spread out to the right and to the left;
your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.
No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.
This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me,” declares the LORD.
stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords,
strengthen your stakes.
For you will spread out to the right and to the left;
your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.
No weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.
This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and this is their vindication from me,” declares the LORD.
Everyone feels stretched at one point in their life. How we respond to the stretch is what matters. There may be some of my younger readers that don't remember Gumby. He is the little character below that we played with as children. You could stretch him in different positions and even put him on his little horse Pokey. The only difference between Gumby's stretch and ours is he always went back to his original position. The goal for us is to remain bigger and more pliable than we were before the stretch.
Below you can see a Taffy making machine. You will notice that the machine pulls the Taffy one way and then the other. We have natural stretching in our lives as part of being human, becoming an adult, learning to drive, paying bills, confronting issues in relationships. These are all hard. Then, there is spiritual stretching, God working on us. God wanting to produce more in and through us. God wanting to make us bigger people on the inside. God asking us to do things we feel incapable of doing.
However, I have worked out hard at the gym. I have ran numerous races. If I stretched afterwards I wasn't nearly as sore. If I stretched before I wasn't as likely to experience injury. We have the choice to stretch before and after exercise. God doesn't always ask our permission--He demands our submission, if we have made Him Lord and Master and not merely Savior.
However, I have worked out hard at the gym. I have ran numerous races. If I stretched afterwards I wasn't nearly as sore. If I stretched before I wasn't as likely to experience injury. We have the choice to stretch before and after exercise. God doesn't always ask our permission--He demands our submission, if we have made Him Lord and Master and not merely Savior.
ACTION STEP: Once taffy is properly stretched, it can be enjoyed by everyone. Allow God to stretch you. No, it's not going to be pleasurable but it will be profitable.
RSS Feed