Day 33 - Finish the Job.

As I sit here tonight, I become aware of something.... I have more-or-less stopped biting my nails. This has happened over the course of the last few weeks, as I have been spending more time with the Lord. Maybe I have been feeling more peaceful, because I know it tends to spring from an inner agitation. I definitely feel more peaceful. But when I say 'more-or-less', I mean that there is one finger I keep picking at.... the little one on my right hand. This gets me thinking.

It seems to be a hard thing to completely finish something. After we'd built an extension to our home and done all the decorating ...... what a lot there was to do!......there was a skirting board that never quite got finished. I think it was a number of years before we actually got round to finishing the job! In the history books of the Bible it tells the story of Israel and Judah and of their kings. Some of the kings were pretty bad, and some of them were good, but for quite a few of the good ones it says they 'did what was right in the eyes of the Lord', but later it says they 'did not remove the high places' (eg., see 1 Kings 15:14). So they did a lot of good and followed God's instructions, but still allowed people to worship false gods on the high places. Why? Maybe they thought it wasn't important ('out of sight, out of mind'), or maybe they wanted to please the people, or maybe they simply ran out of steam! (For non Brits that just means they got tired!) Whatever the reason, they just didn't finish the job they set out to do which was to make the land a place where the Lord was King. They left a bit. 

Some of us have places in our hearts where we don't allow God access. Maybe there's a difficult relationship we have swept under the carpet, maybe there's a secret addiction we would rather no one knew about, or it could be an ongoing fear that we can't shake off. We kind of get used to having these things in our lives and find it difficult to believe that we could change. 

I believe that God wants us to be one hundred percent whole and healed! The first step is to admit to the Lord and to ourselves that we need help. Prayer is always a good starting point. However, sometimes we need to ask for help from others, and that can take a lot of courage. I believe it's worth it.