MY PICTURE PUZZLE

When I was a young girl, I loved picture puzzles. My mother, brothers and I would spend many hours putting them together. As we dumped all the pieces on our large dining room table, mom taught us to find all the pieces that made the frame and put this together first. Then we turned each piece the right side up and found matching pieces and began to form the puzzle. This usually took several days to complete and hopefully no one needed the table before we were finished. We would look at each piece and try to identify where it went in the puzzle. What good would it have been, if after the frame was complete, we just admired each piece and tossed them back into the box? Our puzzle would have never been completed.

 

I was thinking about this recently and saw the frame as our foundation to our Christian life. We must have our foundation correct according to the Word of God. If not, the other pieces of our lives will never fit. To some people, the first few pieces go in quickly-- we stop cheating or telling lies. But sometimes we stop at the basics. God stirs us and we get hungry and thirsty for His righteousness. We take the puzzle box off the shelf- and when we turn over the other pieces, God reveals something to our spirits from His Word. We become awe struck- we get really excited! We show others what God has shown us. We may even teach and write about the amazing thing that God is revealing to us. But what do we do with that beautiful puzzle piece? Many times we just toss it back into the box instead of placing it inside the puzzle frame. We place the puzzle box back on its shelf and never think about it again. Until next time- God stirs us, we get hungry and thirsty- and He shows us a beautiful piece of puzzle- and the same thing happens again. We show it off- display it for awhile- but we never put it in its place in the puzzle.

 

How many times has God shown me something- revealed a special grace or illuminated a particular passage of scripture and I just get so excited about it. I show it off, may teach about it- but I just toss it back in the box. I never apply it to my life. I am not changed- only stirred because God showed me something but I never did anything with it in my own life.

 

God shows us things through His Word for a purpose. It isn't just so we can boast about what God has shown us. No. He reveals these truths to our spirits so that we can change! We first have to be partakers of what He is revealing to us before we can successfully teach others. We must apply those truths to our lives first. Isaiah 28:10 tells us "For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little."  We are continuously being transformed into His glory, but it won't happen all at once. It is a life long process. But if we don't do anything with the things that God shows us, we will never come into full maturity. Just as that picture puzzle takes time to complete, so it is with our lives. But we can't just keep throwing  the pieces back into the box.

 

1 Peter 1:3,4 says His divine power has given us all the things that have to do with life and godliness. It is up to us what we do with them.  We can just sit back and admire His truths and do nothing with them- or we can apply them to our lives and continue to grow in the knowledge of Him. Don't throw those pieces back into the box. Do something with them- apply them to your life! It is a dangerous place to be in when we constantly refuse to allow the change that God is requiring of His people. A judgmental spirit will set in and we will see what is wrong with everyone else, but never see our own faults. When we refuse to use what He has given us, our hearts will become hard and it will become more difficult to even see what He is showing us.

 

Dear Lord, I thank You for showing me divine truths and that You have enabled me through the Holy Spirit to apply them to my life.  Help me to see those beautiful puzzle pieces and apply them to my life, so that I may continue to grow into Your image. In Christ's Name, Amen.