Digging Through the Walls

Everyone struggles as we try to look inward and better understand ourselves. When looking deeper to discern the things God has placed in you - your gifts, talents, and values, it is hard to decouple our unlimited potential from our past failures. If you’re wrestling with this, you’re normal!

In John 15: 2 Jesus says "Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.” The chapter goes on to say that this pruning process is healthy and normal to enable the branch to bear fruit. Jesus is the vine, and God the Father is the Vine Dresser, who works with us to trim away the aspects of our lives that are not producing fruit.

In Ezekiel 8, Ezekiel experiences a visitation by a strange “appearance of a man,” with fire and glowing metal. He is taken from place to place and the stranger reveals to him the sins of Israel. Initially Ezekiel is shown an external view, clearly visible to anyone who would look. Then he is taken to the entrance to the court and shown a hole in the wall. He is told to dig through the wall and when he does, he finds an entrance. Ezekiel goes through and is shown even greater abominations than before.

The example in Ezekiel gave him a deep understanding of the call on his life. The idea of “digging” to gain entrance can equally apply to our challenge of understanding the call on our lives. It should be uncomfortable. It should be hard. If it’s not, we’re probably not digging deep enough.

Remember
- Spend time with God and let Him show you where to dig.
- Know that the past is in your rear-view mirror and if you’ve repented of your failures and sins, through Christ, God has forgiven and forgotten them. You need to also.
-Try to think about life as you did when you were eleven, when the world was simple and you didn’t know what you couldn’t do yet. The world is still simple.

Over the next few weeks as we start to define our mission in this world, and look to understand what our core values are, don’t be discouraged. You’re not writing the final chapter of your life, only the next one. Our goal is to begin looking forward and adjusting our daily activities to make our future better than our past. We want to take lots and lots of little steps that will lead us to the milestones and dreams God has placed in us.

Don’t give up! God’s best for you is just getting started!