After I got dressed this morning, I opened my jewelry box
and went to pull out a chain to wear and along came it with several
others. They were tangled, each string
intertwined with the other. Nine chains
exactly. I managed to easily pull out
the one I wanted to put on, but the others still remained tangled. I put on the one I wanted and since I had nowhere
to go this morning, I decided to try and untangle the rest. After about 20 minutes I untangled four from
the midst. Hubby saw what I was doing, how
involved I was and simply cut on the light above me, so that I could at least
see what I was trying to do. Then after
a few moments, as we often do when he leaves the house, we prayed and he asked
the Lord to help me to untangle my chains.
And then he added, and untangle anything in her life today. In total agreement I said yes, Lord. Hubby left and then I went back to my “project”
of the morning.
With my new light, I had my chains on the bed and continued working
on them, while standing up. After about
10 minutes I was really starting to get frustrated thinking about how fine the
chains were and the knots were not coming loose. I found myself actually afraid that I might
break them. Funny that at the sign of
fear, God stepped in and began to help. Which
is why we have to have the Word in us, because even when we are not thinking
about it, the Word will come to life.
God has not given you the spirit of fear… Holy Ghost said. So with fear back under control, God then gave
me the wisdom to sit down at my desk so that I could at least see the knot up
close.
I went downstairs, laid the chains on my desk (albeit balled
up) and went to make a cup of coffee.
Came back relaxed and determined to untangle my chains. Started working carefully and slowly on
them. Following one link through the
entire chain until it became loosened.
Did that for a few minutes and just when I thought I got one loose, the
magnetic clasp that I put on it, joined itself to another and was tangled up
again. (Side note: I often had trouble putting on my own chains,
because the clasps are so small and so hard to join. So I found and purchased these magnetic
clasps where you can just put them on whatever chain you have and easily join
the clasp around your neck because of the magnetic links. They work perfectly!!!) Anyway, the magnets joined themselves
together on this one particular chain I was working on and caused it to tangle
up, again. But not too much though,
thank God.
Finally after about 2 hours, I managed to get all of the
chains untangled. But it was a
process. Each one I had to remove one by
one. And in doing so, this is what I
heard the Lord saying about my tangled mess.
God said, sometimes things in our lives get tangled. It becomes a tangled mess. Some of them we make ourselves by putting our
hands directly on it, some of them just come together by the choices that we
have made and some of them are formed because we are not careful in how we do
things. My chains were tangled because
I was not careful in how I hung them in my jewelry box. Then my chains were even more tangled because
of the way I had my hands on them when I carried them downstairs in the palm of
my hand balled up. And some of my chains
were tangled because they were drawn together by the magnet (an outside force).
God said that sometimes things in our lives become tangled
because we allow outside forces to draw things together that should not
be. We allow people to get into
situations where their advice does not help.
We allow ourselves to get attached to things that please our flesh for
the moment. But in the end it will cause
us to be tangled. Tangled up in
sin. Tangled up in denial. In circumstances.
Then God said this, we find ourselves entangled and we look
to Him to get us out of it. And He can
and He will. But we have to give Him
time to do so. To get out of things is
much harder and takes a lot longer than to get in it. See it only takes a second to be drawn to
something. But it takes some detangling
(and some detoxing and demagnetizing, if you will) to be taken away from
it. The magnets on my chain simply came
together. Those things that we are drawn
to we find easy to attach ourselves to it.
Then it takes some staying away, some pulling away, some prayer and
sometimes fasting to detach ourselves from them. I had
to physically pull the magnets away and be careful to KEEP them away from each
other. And let me remind you it took me
over two hours! The mess we find
ourselves in might have taken years to get in, the decisions we have made over
our lifetime cause us to be in a tangled mess today and then we expect God to
untangle them now. He certainly can, but
I believe His will is rather for us to learn something in the process, so that
we don’t do it again.
God will untangle the messes in our lives. But He also said this, we have to trust Him
enough to give it to Him. To lay them
down, flat out, so He can take a close look.
Just like I had to get close to see the knot in the chains to untangle
them, we need to get to close to God, so that He can see the knots in our
lives. We tend to hide, keep at a distance
or even pull away when we’re in a mess.
When what we need to do is draw nearer.
Get up close. Draw nearer to God.
So that God can see what is really going on. So that He can see the detail in the
knot. We cannot be delivered from what
we keep hidden.
And then just like I knew with my chain, God said He knows
how fine our chain is. He has made
us. He knows what will break us. But He also knows how much He can pull before
we will break. Hallelujah!
My chains are untangled, praise the Lord and pass the jelly
(just like my hubby says). And so is my
life, because God is real.
A servant of the Lord,
Sis. E
