Monday, January 9, 2012 - Beware the Music Room

     Enter our music room (converted dining room) at your own risk.  We're living dangerously in there.  
     The previous owners of our home drove a large screw securely into the wall which will leave a huge hole if we remove it.  The screw is too high to hang a picture at "regulation height," but if we remove it we have to fill it, sand it and decide what color to paint that area of the house. Since painting comes further down our list of things to do to the house, we live on the edge every day with a horizontal plate holder balancing from the middle on this large and secure screw.  All stays steady as long as I place or remove the two end plates at the same time, but there are marks on the wall for every time I forget and that painting job moves up the list.  
     On what inconvenient pegs have you tried to balance your life?  
         *high expectations
         *an unsteady market
         *irrational people
         *inexperience
         *tight spaces
         *wide open criticism
         *low support
         *past mistakes
         *quirks and hard to break habits
       Satan wants us to believe these problems are firmly embedded and either impossible to remove and repair or too much trouble to change when we've lived this long balancing on our peg of choice.  We would "upset the apple cart" and "rock the boat," but God delights in this kind of remodeling and reminds us that any peg that's not Him will come down, along with everything we've hung on it.

"'In that day,' declares the LORD Almighty, 

'the peg' driven into the firm place will give way; 

it will be sheared off and will fall, 

and the load hanging on it will be cut down." 

The LORD has spoken." 

Isaiah 22:25

    God's calling us to drop our fear or laziness and accept the challenge.

"For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, 

but you received the Spirit of sonship."  

Romans 8:15

As God's children, we're born into
      *Power that moves mountains, 
      *Truth that never changes
      *and Love that changes us.

"For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, 

but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God." 

1 Peter 1:23

   Painting the music room will be a lot of trouble, but it's the ultimate answer to making the room what we want it to be. And, as inconvenient as a "peg" shift seems now, it's the ultimate answer to a safely balanced life of peace and security. 
     Father, open our eyes to see where we've misplaced our trust, allowed our lives to flow with the current or simply refused to remodel our lives to fit Your calling.  Fill us with Your Spirit of Power, Truth and Love so we can't be content until we've hung everything on You alone because You alone are eternally sound and secure.  
In the Name of Jesus, Our Solid Rock