Cleaved Wipe Open
It seems I have a “hard head” as they would say or a “closed mind”. Meaning I thought how I thought and I wasn’t very interested in expanding it. Frankly, I didn’t even consider the possibility.
Thank God, I serve a faithful and righteous King who doesn’t leave me where I am. He constantly invites me and gives me grace and the strength to seek the better way—His way.
The picture He gave me to help me understand the concept of expanding my brain was dramatic. Don’t worry, it wasn’t gory.
I saw the contours of a brain and then it was sliced wide open, creating a Grand Canyon sized gap, and then this valley began to push upward and out. What lay at the bottom came to the top. Then this process repeated itself over and over again in many areas of the brain. Until the entire landscape of the brain was different, it was so much more diverse, with smaller, but infinitely more ridges. New thoughts could be born as they zipped from ridge to ridge.
If this word picture didn’t help you, let me try my point with a different visual analogy—bread. A loaf of bread unsliced is just a big lump. If it was to be eaten, it would be a single huge serving and it would be very hard to spread anything on to it. When cleaved open or sliced, there is a new surface area to use to make a sandwich. Each time it’s cut, a new possibility of a sandwich becomes available.
Sometimes God needs to cleave through an old idea or mindset to allow new things that have been pushed down to rise. With new ways of thinking comes new ways of doing. With new ways of doing things, new opportunities are born. But this only happens when we desire to work on getting rid of the old.
Being cleaved open sounds violent and painful. Sometimes it is very painful when we allow God to cut through our old patterns of thinking to allow us to dare to believe what He desires us to believe. The old ways of thinking often dies hard.
I don’t know why I’m so stubborn and it takes such force to course correct my thinking, but it does.
What has God been asking you to think differently about? How does He want you to see it?
Trials as a Blessing
Hardship as Character Building
Difficult people as an Opportunity to Show Grace
Messy house as a Gift from God
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Rom. 12:2, NIV)
Prayer for you and me: Lord Jesus, our brains can be stubborn brutes. Help us lay down our old way of thinking and doing things to receive Your new and better way. We know You are a good God that only desires good things for us. Help us agree with You to receive all that You have for us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Our brains get in the way of His Word.