(Some material adapted Unglued
by Lysa Terkeurst)
As
you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious
to him — you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house
to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
through Jesus Christ. I Peter 2:4-5
When filming the DVD
sessions for the Bible study Unglued in Florence, Italy, Lysa Terkeurst toured a
gallery to see the sculpture David by
Michelangelo. The corridor leading up to
the room with the beautifully chiseled sculpture was lined with other
sculptures – unfinished – called Prisoners.
We are all on a journey to greatness, unfinished but being chiseled by
the Master when we let Him. We can stay
locked away in our hard places, or we can allow ourselves to be chiseled into a
masterpiece. It doesn’t happen fast, it
is a process.
Labels
Labels can be horrible
when we put them on ourselves. We can
actually imprison ourselves in hard places with no way to escape. We label ourselves all kinds of negative
things such as angry, frustrated, jerk, insecure, just like my mother, unglued,
etc. These labels start out as little
whispers that can take over our mind before we know it, consuming us with
self-condemnation and defeat.
We trap ourselves in these
hard places with our condemning words and feelings of defeat. We begin to believe the negative self-chatter
that we will never be any different. We
lock ourselves in these prisons – prisons without bars. The only thing required to hold us there is
our perception that we belong there. Inside we are longing for the freedom of
God’s grace, yet we can’t give it to ourselves!
Embrace the
Grace
Yesterday we talked about
imperfect progress. That is what
embracing God’s grace is. God covers us
with His grace in all our hard places. We
are like the unfinished sculptures in the Prisoners
display in Italy. We are locked away in
our hard places but we can be free when we let God chisel us. He is on a mission to create a masterpiece,
and yes, we are His masterpiece. It
doesn’t feel good but God will use it
for good. He has too much planned for us to lock
ourselves away in hard places. We need
to allow Him to chip away the parts of us that don’t look like Him or what He
wants us to be. We can come out of being
stuck in the dark places and into the light of who He designed us to be. He is
chiseling us, releasing us from those hard places so we can do His good
works.
Let God Chisel
Michelangelo was only 26
when he started working on the 17 foot tall statue of David. He actually was not
the artist that started it. It had been
commissioned before he was even born and two other artists had worked on it but
not completed it. Michelangelo started
working on it and two years later, he completed it. It is said that when asked how he made it, he
replied, “It is easy. You just chip away
the stone that doesn’t look like David.”
That is what God is doing with us.
He is chipping away all the parts that are not supposed to be
there. It was also said that
Michelangelo never left the statue. He
stayed there beside it constantly. He
ate there, slept there, and worked. God
also never leaves us. He is working on
us, chiseling His masterpiece and He never leaves us, especially in our hard
places.
Embrace the grace of God,
the master and let God chisel.
Scripture to Claim:
But you are a chosen people, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the
praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
1 Peter 2:9
1 Peter 2:9
