The Chair

True story, y’all! There has been an old metal lawn year in our yard for years. The chair was one of my husband’s Aunt Ruby’s lawn chairs. When she was living, we went and sat on her front porch to visit often. She has been gone for many years now.  The chair looked rough but because of sentimental value I couldn’t bring myself to trash it. So, this was the year I decided to paint it. It was in bad shape for sure. Over the years it had been painted green, red and at some point white and those colors were now showing after being out in the weather for so many years.

I knew I should have taken time to scrape and sand it, but I talked myself into thinking it would be fine with just a couple of coats of spray paint. I was badly mistaken. Instead of me dealing with the years of damage and neglect, I decided to try and cover the issue with paint. Just saying don’t try my method, because my method was oh so wrong.  I had hoped that primer and a beautiful shade of blue would do the trick.  From a distance it looks just fine, but with a closer look the rough edges, wear and tear of life can be seen and felt. 

It is the same with our lives.  Many times, we place on a mask going through life placing one foot in front of the other, all the time we are hurting inside. The rough edges and scars found on my chair reflect the attitudes and motives that are seen in our lives that come to the surface when we are placed under pressure. Because we have not dealt with the pain and past hurts of our past, those things keep coming to the surface, it all comes back to bite us.

It is time to deal with the past, and put it completely behind us, not just covered it up with a mask, just saying I am ok, you are ok. It is time to dig up the roots of shame, bitterness, deceit, and unforgiveness or whatever it is that has held you back. As we begin scraping and sanding these things out of our lives our future begins to look brighter, and we will have a brand-new outlook on life. As we do this, we will begin to walk in the freedom that Christ has made available to us through the cross. He paid the price so that you and I may live free, unencumbered lives, free from our past hurt and pain.  We cannot change our past, but we can do something about our present and our future. Each day is a new beginning, a new start. We can start with a clean slate. The only way this chair will look better is by me removing the paint then scraping and sanding away the past damage.  After sanding and scraping it can be painted again, revealing a chair that is ready for use again. Oh, it will still have some dents and flaws, but they will only remind us of the work that was done to make it beautiful. The peeling paint and rough edges represent our past issues that are holding us back from walking out a life of freedom. Healing doesn’t happen overnight; it is a process just like getting this chair scraped, sanded and painted again. Changing ourselves is a process that will be accomplished by allowing Holy Spirit to teach us, comfort us, and lead us with all our decisions. Some describe it as removing the different layers of an onion. I like to think the process is like the little chick pecking away at the shell until it is free to live its life in freedom without the confines of the shell. The act of pecking away at the shell helps the chick to become stronger in order face life’s challenges. God is wanting you to break free today from all that is holding you back.  Don’t give up when it gets hard. Keep pecking away at the walls that have you bound, walls of fear, insecurity, unforgiveness, low self-esteem, feelings of being unloved. As you keep pecking away, you will become stronger and stronger. You will begin to walk into the destiny that God always wants you to walk in. This is what Jesus said about it, John 8:36If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed”.  His perfect will for your life is a life of freedom.

Be Blessed,

Terry

Galatians 5:1

1  Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. 

Luke 4:18

18  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 

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