Yesterday, I was able to attend a live conference with Beth Moore. First of all, those of you who know me, know that I love her. I have done several of her studies and she never ceases to teach me something about the power and meaning of God's word. She has made me laugh and cry...which is hard to do, seeing that I have been accused of not being born with tear ducts! Anyway, yesterday was a message about God's deliverance, and I promise she did not disappoint.
Her message was simple..we are all worthy of God's mercy and forgiveness. Beth symbolizes this need to be rescued with being in a pit. She says that you can get into the pit several different ways. You can get into the pit by your own choice, someone else's actions can force you into the pit, or you can slip in the pit. The way out is the same, God's mercy. I always love her illustrations. She described his deliverance with the verses Pslams 18:16-19. To paraphase, God reaches down, takes hold of us and rescues us from our pit. What a vivid picture of our God reaching down and grabbing hold of us with His hands and delivering us from whatever sin we allow to take over our lives. We can't crawl out of it on our won. His grace is sufficient!!
What would your pit be decorated with? What is it that makes the sin so attractive? I went into the conference thinking about what it is that I need to get away from. I think I already knew, but it was made clear to me. The walls of my pit are decorated with mirrors. I am overly obsessed with my appearance. I spend too much of my time thinking about my weight, what I am going to wear, my hair, and how I appear to others. I know this is a common problem for all women. However, I think I crossed the normal line a long time ago. I know it goes back to being overweight as a child. But as an adult, I have kept my weight fairly well in check, especially in the past 3 or 4 years. My problem lies in the fact that so much of my time and thoughts are filled with my appearnce that it gets in the way of things I really need to be doing. I might spend 30 minutes overthinking what I am going to wear to school each day. I think things like, "I wore that 3 weeks ago, what if someone remembers?" "If I wear that now, I might need to wear it in a few weeks, I better save it." Typing that makes it seem worse. It's just crazy. It's just an obsession.
What now am I going to do about my mirrored pit? My prayer is that God will help me to be happy with myself, that he will reach down, take hold of me and rescue me from this obsession. It's not going to be easy to erase all the thoughts that have been swirling in my mind all these years? I know I can't do it without His help.
How is your pit decorated? Is it with pictures of someone you can't forgive? Is it hard for you to let go of past sins? Are you in the pit with people who lead you down the wrong road? Or is it covered with mirrors like mine?
It's actually a very freeing feeling to know that we worship a God who is able to forgive us and wraps us in His mercy and love. He is truly worthy of all our praise!
Sandy C
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8 comments:
We don't love you for your appearance Mrs. Carter (Even though it is very nice), we love you for who you are and for the amazing job that you do day in and day out at work. God bless you!!!
Keep being you...
Great post! I think my pit is filled with mirrors, too. I had never thought of how I worry about my appearance as being something that takes up time God wants me to use for something else. Whew! That was a long sentence! I used to teach 1st grade, too, before I had my daughter, and I would do the same thing getting dressed!
Apparently you have students who love you! That's wonderful.
I really think, as you stated, many if not most women deal with the mirror image. I wish I could look in and see what God sees. We're working on it.
I laughed at your wondering if someone remembered what you wore 3 weeks ago. I do that too. I just recently went back to teaching and don't a lot of work clothes yet. So, I am having to get used to people seeing me in the same thing. I don't like it, but I guess they either don't notice or don't care. Either of which is ok with me.
Great post!
This is a beautiful post - and I love your transparency. Most of the time I'm pretty even-keeled about appearance stuff; but I have noticed that about two or three times a year I find myself on a "quest" to look a certan way. But the fact of the matter is that somewhere imbedded in my quest for the perfect outfit or hairdo (I gave up on the perfect body long, long ago) :-) is the belief that I alone am not enough. And that's just a lie straight from the devil. It is.
Thanks so much for being a part of our little book club - I really enjoyed reading your post!
Great post...and lots to think about. Unfortunately, when I look at the whole topic of pit-dwelling and consider what my pit is decorated with, I discover I have my summer pit, where I spend my time fretting over my appearance, my winter get-away pit, where I overindulge in those things that pull me out of the dreary-day blahs, and my P.O. Box Pit, where I keep all of my secret thoughts and struggles, only going there under cover of darkness and in dark glasses (like today)...I really have to get out more! Of those pits, I mean...
I was used as a vessel in October when I wrote the "Mirror" correspondence to small group. I quess I just did nor look like Jesus' sister.
Hello,
Just stopping by to 'discuss' the book club book. I enjoyed reading your notes. It's time to take down some pictures, here in my pit, and focus on my Deliver. Here's to heading up and out, hanging on to God's robe!
~TaunaLen
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