Clarity in His Word

I just want to honestly share with you for a moment. Lately I've been avoiding God's word. Not God, just the Bible. See, things have been rough in my life lately as I have been struggling with anger and hurt in my life over something relatively small. (But isn't that the way it seems to go?) And as I took steps away from the beautiful gifts God has given me the only thing I could do was reach out to Him in prayer and ask him to show me the right way to handle things. Two days too late later God forced my opportunity to confront the situation and work it out. Which I am so thankful for...the weight I had carried on my heart was almost too much to bear. And I had caused it to be there!
Anyway, looking back over the past few days I realized there were several times when I felt God calling me to His word but I ignored it; ran away from it even. And I think the reason was this: I knew that His word would expose the wrong thinking and the hurt in my life and I just didn't want to face it and heal yet. I wasn't ready to give up my pain in exchange for forgiveness of myself and my other. Seeing it now I realize how stupid that was and wonder what in the world I thought I would accomplish by dragging it out any longer. But at the time, it seemed like the right thing to do. Isn't it strange how we can so wrongly view a situation when we don't allow ourselves to view it through the clarifying lens of God's perfect Word?
God, may I never again run away from Your Truth and exchange it for my petty, blind thinking. Amen.

Isaiah 29 and the Potter

"You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like clay! Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, 'He did not make me'? Can the pot say of the potter, 'He knows nothing'?" - Isaiah 29:16 (NIV)
How ignorant we are to continually reject God and refuse to see Him as Master of all! How much I must repent from the daily belief that I am wise, good, and in control of my life. I need humility.

Embracing Change

Lately it seems like my life perspective is seriously changing. It's been a gradual thing but I'm finally starting to see what will soon be the result of God's working on my heart and changing my attitude of how I see the future.
See, I used to view the future as this unknown, scary thing that mostly encompassed the thing I hate most: change. And while to some degree I still hold that view, a different perspective has emerged in my mind of what good may lie in wait for me, and how change can even be a positive thing. (*Gasp!* I know...I'm still shocked myself. The idea that change can be positive goes against everything I have ever relied on when it comes to decision-making and faith.) I no longer hope that my life will forever stay the blissful little image I desire it to be where nothing ever changes, but am ready to face head-on the challenges and advertures that come with embracing the change God brings into my life.
Now this doesn't mean I will always love it and be perfectly happy in the situations God places me. If course I won't! I am fully aware that sometimes my life will suck eggs and I'll revert back to the change-hating, cautious me that wants nothing to do with God's sovereign plan for me. But I pray those moments are short-lived and become reminders of why change is so very necessary. (Especially for someone stubborn like me.)
Another thing I am seeing is that change shows itself to, well, change. It always comes about in an unexpected way and bring new things to every situation.  For me, the changes I may soon be experiencing are things like: marriage, moving for the first time, graduation, my first "real" job, etc. But for you, God may have something completely different in store. I think the key is just learning to accept and trust that His hand is the driving force and He will bring you through it and to it in His perfect time and way. And that's definitely something I'm still working at learning.
How do you cope with change?