When You Feel Like You Messed UP
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51 1-3 Generous in love—God, give grace!
Huge in mercy—wipe out my bad record.
Scrub away my guilt,
soak out my sins in your laundry.
I know how bad I’ve been;
my sins are staring me down.
4-6 You’re the One I’ve violated, and you’ve seen
it all, seen the full extent of my evil.
You have all the facts before you;
whatever you decide about me is fair.
I’ve been out of step with you for a long time,
in the wrong since before I was born.
What you’re after is truth from the inside out.
Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.
7-15 Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean,
scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life.
Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,
set these once-broken bones to dancing.
Don’t look too close for blemishes,
give me a clean bill of health.
God, make a fresh start in me,
Psalm 51:1-15 (The Message)
How many of us feel like we have messed up so bad that God will abandon us or not love us anymore? When we find ourselves in this place, in the middle of the fire, this is where the refining begins.
As I think of being in the middle of the fire, I think of the art of glass blowing. The beautiful pieces of art don't begin beautiful.
✨The glass is heated up and melted in a furnace and I think that this is kind of like us. Feeling like we have messed up so bad that there is no hope for us and so we just melt down into despair thinking that there is no one to save us or no way out.
✨The glass blower reaches into what's called the Glory Hole with a steel pipe and begins rolling it around to gather up the melted glass. I think of this as Jesus reaching into our lives and gathering us up with all the messes we have made and beginning His work in us.
✨ The glassblower then takes this melted glass and rolls it around on a steel table called a Marver to give it a cylindrical shape. I can just imagine Jesus reforming our hearts in this way, to show us an easier and more direct path to Him.
✨Then the glassblower puts the glass back into the Glory Hole all the while turning the blow pipe and keeping it in constant motion. This process will happen several times until until the artist is satisfied with his creation.
Here's the thing, what I absolutely love about using this image of Jesus being a Glass Blower is because He is the one reaching into the fire to save us, to mold us, to make us more and more into who God created us to be. Restoring us to live in His light and love.
Refined, Renewed, and Restored! Of course there will be times where we find ourselves placed back into the flames of the fire. The peace and joy comes when we realize that Jesus is right there with us forming us, molding us, and loving us. We begin to understand that this fire we are in will only be for a time. We rejoice in the knowledge that Jesus does not leave us where we are!
When we turn to Him, He loves us, He forgives us and He never leaves us! We do not go on this journey alone.
Dear one, know that there is never anything too awful or too horrible that you have done for Jesus not to love you! He loves you so much! He walks through the fires of life with you. Yes it may get heated for awhile, yes the Lord may leave you in the fire for awhile to melt your heart so that He can continue to form you and make you into the beautiful creation that you are!
Refined, Renewed, & Restored!🔥
This is the journey we are on with Jesus! I wouldn't want anyone else to be the one to walk with me on this journey!!
Rest in Him and His love and trust that Jesus knows what He's doing!! He died on the cross for you, That's how much He loves you!! 💞
May today be the day that you see, understand and know that messing up is the opportunity for Jesus to bring you closer to Him and to be made beautiful from the inside out! Do not despair! Rejoice for He will never leave you where you are!!
