While on vacation down south a few weeks ago, I heard New York Times best-selling Christian author, Lysa TerKeurst, speak during a weekend conference I attended with 650 other women. One topic she spoke about was titled "Let God Chisel." Her message revolved around her recent visit to Italy to view Michelangelo's world-renowned 17-foot marble statue of David. She explained how the artist spent three years chiseling the stone and while creating this masterpiece, he never left its side. He slept nearby on a cot until it was complete.
He never left David's side, until the masterpiece was complete.
For three years. Now that's commitment!
I accepted the Lord as a child and just like Michelangelo never left David's side, I know God's never left mine. Looking back, it's so evident how He's protected, molded and shaped me because...
I let Him chisel.
Not always, but mostly.
This summer has definitely been a season of refining and chiseling. God chipped away at my heart--tampering with the unpolished, marred and brittle pieces--and I felt every gouge of His pruning blade cut deep.
It felt like someone stuck my heart in a blender and pushed frappé.
I'm not gonna sugar coat it, it was brutal. It was heart wrenching. For days the pain was relentless.
But like David, I no longer feel I'm carrying unnecessary weight.
Lysa showed us photos of several other statues that were unfinished cuts of stone, where only partial limbs, half torsos and foreheads emerged.
These statues were called "The Prisoners."
They were haunting images.
People half alive. Half dead. For a lifetime.
Never fully tasting freedom.
Will we let God chisel or stay forever imprisoned behind hardened hearts of stone?
Will we run from His healing hand because it may mean facing feelings that make us uncomfortable?
Will we remain complacent and stagnant in our faith, or desire to draw deeper into fellowship with our Creator, no matter what the cost?
Oh, God, please keep chiseling in our hearts! Help us trust you are a God who wants to set us completely free from any bondage and unnecessary weight we may be carrying. Help us understand...
You're a God who loves us too much to let us stay stuck where we are.
You're a God who will never forsake us or leave us incomplete.
You're a God who only sees the masterpiece hiding within our unfinished slabs of stone.
Thank you, Lord, for every work of art You have created, are creating and have yet to create. Amen.
"Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 2 Corinthians 5:17
"For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago." Ephesians 2:10
"But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved." Ephesians 2:4-5
1 Spout:
My goodness the photo of the unfinished sculpture does create a vivid picture of a life with out Christ! Thank you for this encouraging post.
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