Time for a Checkup

This past weekend, I went to the mountains for a retreat. It was wonderful and hard at the same time. This wasn’t the kind of retreat where you just rested, and ate, and maybe played a game or two! This retreat required me to examine myself and not make any excuses. You see, I went on the mountain seeking a special encounter with God. I was determined to not come down the same. I went up that mountain burdened and angry and bitter. Now, best believe I had convinced myself otherwise. I talked a good game but inside I was a bit of a mess.

Have you ever been stripped bare by God? I mean allowed Him to really purge you? If not, I encourage you to go to your secret place and ask God to show you how you look to Him. You don’t have to go on a retreat, He will do it anywhere and it is a revelation. I looked heavy and tired and sad. It wasn’t a good look. But I’m grateful that I did not have to stay like that. Once, I was able to really see myself, I could ask God to restore me. The Bible says in Ephesians 4, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. “

How powerful and freeing it is to leave all the baggage. Yes, even that old stuff that you have buried really deep inside that still manifests itself in how you see yourself and how you react to people. And some of our stuff is super deep. The scars of molestation or heartbreak, pain of how a parent or family member treated you, the loss of someone important, guilt. It can eat at you without you really recognizing it but it’s time now to let it all go. I left everything that was not like Him up on that mountain.  You see, I want to be the place where God lives. I want to be a place of worship!

John 14 talks about how Jesus is the vinedresser and He cuts away any branches that aren’t bearing fruit and prunes the ones that are so that more fruit can come.  How awesome is it that He can look at you and clear out what is not producing in you. Can you think of a better doctor’s appointment than that?

It’s true that we don’t always hear good news after a checkup but the Word does in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”  

How awesome to walk away from your checkup leaving the old, dead things and wearing nothing but new things! My prayer for each of you is that God will show you what needs to be cleaned out and you will walk in forgiveness, freedom, and power!

Be blessed…