Tag: sanctification

From Impatience to Peace

Lisa Preuett

Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick-tempered displays folly. (Proverbs 14:29)

I’d just finished composing an important email that needed to go out. All I had to do was hit “send” and I’d be on my way to the next task of the day. But the Wi-fi signal dropped out and my email couldn’t go through.

Ugghh! Really??

 

My daughter needed one last piece of information from the Internet for her school work. After carefully searching for what she needed, I was ready to print. But no. The printer had a mind of its own and stubbornly decided it wasn’t going to print in that moment.

You’ve got to be kidding me! I need this right now! 

I had just enough time to get to my appointment as I happily drove down the highway. Christian music blasting and the sun roof open, I sang cheerfully, soaking up the beautiful afternoon. But suddenly I had to slam on my brakes as traffic came to a screeching halt. A slow truck pulled a trailer behind it, at a whole 25 miles per hour. I was going to be late now!

Come on! Can’t you go faster?? (I said these words out loud as if the driver could actually hear me.)

More often than not, I’ll humbly admit that my level of patience is not good in these moments.

Technology and Traffic. These are the two things that–when they aren’t going my way–try my patience more than anything.

Instead of letting the Holy Spirit work patience in me, I frequently choose to let my flesh drive me in the opposite direction. A direction leading to a quick-tempered attitude. According to the scripture above in Proverbs, this displays folly.

Folly? A fancy word for sin.

This is where the process of sanctification takes place. The areas in which we are most weak are where God wants to work His character in us. The situations that drive us most crazy are where God wants to usher in His peace to replace our impatience.

I honestly feel like a failure in these moments! The moments where I’ve lost my patience and embraced my flesh instead of finding God’s power and following His lead.

What about you? Can you identify the areas of your life where you seem to lose your patience most often?

The moments that trigger the worst in you?

The moments when your calm spirit quickly turns to a chaotic sass?

God is showing me that these are the very opportunities He allows for me to turn to Him. These are the moments in which I get to decide to follow my flesh or surrender to Him. As a teacher continues to test his students until mastery is achieved, our loving Heavenly Father continues to let us encounter these moments until His character comes through.

So the next time I blow it (yes, it will happen!), I can soak up God’s grace and forgiveness and trust that He will give me yet another opportunity to try again. For me it’s traffic and technology. For you it might be something else. But whatever it is, as long as we live on this fallen earth, there will be ample opportunities for God to work patience in us in our most trying moments.

 

Blessings to you!

Lisa Preuett

Under Construction

Lisa Preuett

Ever been driving  steadily down the road while on a tight schedule? You have just enough time to get to where you’re going. And then you see it in the distance. No! It can’t be! Especially not now! We’re on vacation! Yep, there it is in plain sight. Traffic slows down and then comes to a harsh stop. You peer through your squinted eyes and see it as big as day…a huge bright orange sign, taunting you:

CONSTRUCTION AHEAD

Really? Why does this happen every time we’re traveling on a long road trip?

This is fresh in my mind because it happened just recently. We anticipated how close we were to our house…less than 45 minutes. Soon we’d be pulling in our driveway, our pets would welcome us home, and we’d crash into our own comfy beds. But no! In the distance we could see the cars backed up on the freeway. They weren’t even inching along. They were at a dead stop.

Now this is when the complaining started. See if any of these comments sound familiar to you:

Why in the world would they schedule construction work so late? It’s almost midnight!

Didn’t they know everyone would be coming back from spring break vacation?

How long is this gonna take?

Check the GPS for an alternate route…I can’t just sit here like this. (That one would be my husband speaking)

What a mess!

There’s not even a place to stop and go to the bathroom or get a snack!

We may never play the role of a construction worker, but as Christ followers we are constantly under God’s construction. From the time we commit our lives to Christ, we are essentially saying to Him, “I surrender my life to you. Have your way with me. Sanctify me and make me more like you.”

When road construction is going on, there are three things that always result.

Delays.

A huge mess.

Complaints about the inconvenience.

If we expect to be under God’s construction, then why are we surprised when things don’t go our way? Why are we upset when our predictable routine is suddenly shaken? Why do we complain when we have asked Him to help us with certain areas of our lives? Maybe you pray to be a more patient parent, yet when God gives you opportunities to practice this, you resist and express frustration because it’s causing too much delay. You pray for God to help you through a conflict with a loved one, but it just isn’t happening quick enough.

And what about the mess? When we drove past the construction site I noticed bull dozers, jack hammers, and debris strewn all over the place. It almost looked like a bomb had exploded smack in the middle of it all!

Sometimes certain areas of our lives have to get “messed up” before God can reconstruct it for something good. We ask Him to shine the spotlight of the Holy Spirit on our hearts and reveal any hidden sin. He shows us something in the light and the first thing we say is “Yuck!” But He can’t renovate and renew that area unless we are willing to humbly expose our sin, as messy as it looks.

As creatures of comfort and convenience, we are experts at complaining.

Why now?

This isn’t the way I thought God was going to answer that prayer.

 

I don’t want to come out of my comfort zone!

The reality is that God often takes us out of our comfort zones and plunges us into a construction zone.

We need renovation. We need a complete make-over of our heart.

After road construction is complete, we notice great improvement. A two-lane road has emerged into a four-lane road. A dangerous, bumpy exit off the interstate is now safely smoothed out. A much-needed traffic light has replaced an ineffective four-way stop where multiple accidents had occurred.

And it’s the same with us as God’s children. After construction has taken place in an area of our lives, we notice what God has done. Where we once had bitterness, it is replaced with forgiveness. Where we once were characterized by criticism, we extend more grace. Where we once clung with both fists to a besetting sin, we now claim victory with hands raised to God.

So the next time you realize God is putting up a construction sign in front of you, don’t resist. Don’t complain. Don’t worry about the mess. With Him in charge of the construction process, you can trust that it will be complete in His timing! We are His workers and He is the master contractor.

Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

construction sign

 

Blessings to you!

Lisa Preuett

Refining Our Smudges

Lisa Preuett

A few months ago my daughter and I spent an afternoon at Paint Spot, a popular place to paint your own pottery. I selected a unique looking spoon rest to put in my kitchen. Several hours were spent mixing the colors just right and centering my design perfectly in the middle of the spoon rest. I wanted my work of art to be perfect, especially since it would be on display for all who would pass through my kitchen!

Finally I carefully handed it over to the employee. She told me our pottery would be fired in the oven and ready for pick up the following week. I couldn’t wait!

A week later I arrived with excitement to pick up what I thought was going to be a polished looking spoon rest. Imagine my disappointment when I looked at it and right there in the middle of the spoon rest was a black smudge about the size of a thumb print!

Wait a minute here…..I paid a lot of money for this and put a long time into my piece of pottery! I surely didn’t want to take it home looking like that. There’s no way I’d want to display it in my kitchen! 

The employee of Paint Spot assured me that this happened occasionally. But no worries…..they could use sand paper to sand down the black spot and then put my pottery back through the oven a second time. Another week would have to pass before I’d be able to pick up my prized possession.  I left there disappointed, yet I knew I’d rather wait for a polished piece rather than taking home something with an ugly smudge on it!!

As I drove home, God redirected my thoughts from the smudge on my pottery to the smudges in my life. Of course I’d much rather use the word smudge instead of sin because it doesn’t sound as bad. But whatever word you choose to use, it’s not a pretty sight at all.

It seems I am constantly having to go back through the refiner’s oven multiple times to get those yucky smudges off my heart. Selfish thoughts, critical words, and prideful actions just to name a few. And believe me when I say there are multiple types  of sand paper He is using to smooth out my rough edges! If you didn’t know already, spouses and children are God’s sandpaper in disguise.

So what smudges do you have in your life? Those ugly, challenging things that just keep coming back repeatedly? No matter how much you try to paint over them, you just can’t cover them up.

God wants to create something beautiful in us and wants the end result to be polished, shining with the light of Jesus. Just as I wanted to proudly display my spoon rest in the kitchen, our heavenly Father wants to proudly display His people…THE CHURCH…. for all the world to see.

But if there are smudges keeping this from happening, He will use circumstances and other people to be our sandpaper. Then He will lovingly allow the heat to be turned up so those flaws can be refined.

Our prayer should be that when (not if!)we are in the middle of the oven, we will be patient as our Heavenly Father, the ultimate potter, continues to refine us until we are perfected in His sight!

Jeremiah 9:7 “See, I will refine and test them, for what else can I do because of the sin of my people?”

pottery