Gloriously Uncomfortable

Have you experienced seasons of knowing that God is pressing in? That you are on the potter’s wheel and His hands are upon you stretching, shaping, molding, recreating, perfecting and refining you, His child.

But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.  – Isaiah 64:8

It is a gloriously uncomfortable place to be. Why? Because He is conforming us to the image of His Son. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son;[i] And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another[ii]

That which is in us that is NOT like Christ has to go. That is the uncomfortable part, letting go of deeply held habits, attitudes, beliefs and actions that we cling to, that God is pruning away. The glorious part is that we are becoming more like Jesus.

I am currently in one of these growing seasons, ordained by God for this time in my life. He is using several different things simultaneously as catalysts for change. I am immersed in the required reading for a Christ-centered Recovery Coach certification, Trauma counseling training, leading a women’s study in Philippians, reading a manuscript for a pastor, plus my regular time in the Word. All these are impacting me afresh.

If you are not currently in a growing season, its coming and when it does, hang on, it can be a wild ride. Sometime it can feel like drinking from a firehose. These growing seasons come and go.

There are also desert seasons. I’ve had plenty of those too. O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water[iii]. Perhaps you find yourself smack dab in the middle of one now. Scripture reading is just words on a page and after 30 minutes of reading you couldn’t say one thing you remember about your reading other than the book you read from.  I’ve been there.

Whether you are in a growing season or a desert season know for certain God has His eyes on you (For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him [iv]). He is up to something good in your life (that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end [v]) because… He fashions (your) hearts individually…[vi] (Parenthetical adaptation mine)

God sees you personally and calls you by name (But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.[vii]) He is in the process of conforming you to the image of His Son in both the growing and desert seasons of life. Either way, relentlessly pursue Christ.

Blessings,

Diane

Written by Diane Hunt: Diane Hunt serves on the board of America’s Keswick and is the Executive Director & CEO of Changed Choices, a Christian non-profit in North Carolina. She is also a biblical counselor and women’s event speaker. For more information about having Diane speak at your next event please contact her at dhunt@americaskeswick.org.