03/09/2023
Are you suffering today? Is your life full of hardship that has brought you to your knees... not in the abandonment of life and faith, but in a desperate need to submit yourself to God? If so, then you have been brought to the right place and frame of mind. In this state your soul will call out to God and your humanity will not get in the way of the Holy Spirit’s work in you.
“The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.”
Psalms 9:9 KJV
I once watched a show on how to fold paper. It was demonstrating the 6th century Japanese art called origami. Quite often God takes our lives and folds them into a shape that He finds useful and beautiful, but occasionally we see our unfinished lives as ugly and useless... we see it this way because we don't have the foresight to see it as He sees it, or the purpose that lies ahead once we have been completed.
Then there is kirigami in which paper is folded and pieces cut away to form a shape (such as a snowflake). The technique employed is different, but the beauty of the finished product is equally evident, and often a surprise when unfolded. So whether we are being reshaped, or pieces are being removed to reveal the beauty hidden within us; once complete we become a marvelous work of faith.
"The natural heart will do any amount of serving, but it takes the heart broken by conviction of sin, and baptized by the Holy Ghost, and crumpled into the purpose of God before the life becomes the sacrament of its message." - Oswald Chambers
Oswald Chambers probably wasn't envisioning origami, or kirigami, when He penned these words, but the analogy remains valid. He sees our suffering as changing us into the incarnation of the Gospel Message. We are becoming more like Jesus and in so doing it might be necessary for us to suffer as He did.
"God takes us out of our own ideas for our lives and we are "batter'd to shape and use," as the disciples were after Pentecost. Pentecost did not teach the disciples anything; it made them the incarnation of what they preached - "Ye shall be witnesses unto me." - Oswald Chambers
In preparation for use in God's plan we must be brought into subjection and our old selves reworked for the glory of God. How can we tell the story of Jesus without speaking empathetically of suffering? How can we speak of life without understanding death? How can we reveal forgiveness without ever having experienced the need to be forgiven?
“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”
2 Timothy 4:2 KJV
So we suffer, we forgive, we die, and we stand before God to live again through Jesus. Our lives are full of the images of Christ's life... not all of them pleasant as we experience them; yet every fold moving us closer to the completed shape which is the risen Christ. Can you see it in your hunger? Your thirst? Your suffering? Your persecution? Your losses? Sometimes we are just standing too close and the pain too intense for us to realize the magnificent form we are beginning to take on.
As we are being shaped, we need to be careful not to take ourselves from the potter's hand before He is finished with us. We need to understand that as we are attempting to preach the gospel to those around us that we too are still being formed by the hand of God. He is not done with us yet. Despite how perfect we think we are, we are no less a sinner than those to whom we witness... each of our papers remains in the hand of the Lord until He chooses to set us down and say "It is very good."
“But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”
1 Corinthians 9:27 KJV
Prayer:
Father,
I am but a crumpled piece of paper in your hand, and at times the suffering I experience is almost too great to bear. Lift me Lord and, with a simple fold, move me past this tribulation; bring me closer to the shape of Christ and reveal more of Him in me each day. Lord God, let your hand hold me until at long last you can place me before you and see me as beautiful and good... made in your image. Holy Father, I realize that I will suffer and face many trials in this life, and I ask that you give me the strength to endure them, and the faith to understand that you will not abandon me to them, or ask me to endure more than I am capable of. Shape me to your liking and take pleasure in your work, and I will seek you always.
Rich Forbes