What is the process of becoming a new creature?  Have you seen that it happened instantaneously for you or like me does it take place one iteration at a time?  Do you see that God allows you to contend with the same old instances, frustrations, relationship difficulties, insecurities, indulgences and overreactions that used to occur?  Why, when He could remake you immediately would He allow this?  It is not my intention to question God but rather to find the best way in which to understand His Will and comply with that Will for my life.

Therefore, I have to suggest two possibilities; one, that we are being shown the things that are being taken/stripped away from our souls, divided from our Spirit by the sharpest of the two edges of His Sword and two, we are being shown the things that need to be removed so that we can surrender them to God with either a sense of obedience or reluctance.  I believe in my rational heart that it may be both, but it is for you to determine.  Whatever the reason, God has not chosen to change us immediately so this is a process not an immediate arrival at destination.  As always with Love there are choices and levels.  God has no insecurities.  He trusts us and loves us enough to allow us to make the decision as to how close we wish to be with Him.  Some will want total honesty, transparency and commitment, others will want limited relationship and clutch some life items with which they are unwilling to part.  One provides for peace and fellowship and the other guarantees discipline and eventual resentment or bitterness, but both require use of our God given gift of Choice.

Just as with any knot, we must search for the origin of the tangle.  God allows us insight into what created these twists, turns and tangles in our lives so that in their unraveling we can see how they took root in our souls.  I can either let go of my past characteristics, follies, idiosyncrasies and pain or I can maintain a grip upon them, refusing to let go of my former life.  Make no mistake, God loves us too much to allow us to remain in our captivity and He will remove these instances or call us home, but the choice remains ours, to be obedient to His Will and surrender willingly with joy and acceptance or as Jonah, fight God, flee from God and become bitter when we are forced to complete His Will in resistance.  Where did your life Knots originate, as a child, as a young adult?  Are you willing to look in acceptance as they are untangled by God’s Mighty and Expert Skill?  The choice as always is yours.  I choose Joy over bitterness, God’s Will over my own and have found the peace that surpasses worldly understanding as a reward.  What are you finding in your sanctification?

I pray for you this day in the Name of Jesus Christ the King of Kings.