Did you ever have Play Doh as a kid? Did you ever eat it? I have a couple friends, who shall remain nameless, that liked to eat it although that was not the purpose! For those who did not play with this “magical dough,” it was so fun! You pick your color of Play Doh, then pick a plastic shape you want the dough to become. When you press the plastic cookie-cutter shape into the dough, the dough is no longer a blob, it is the shape you intended it to be.
This process is much like our relationship to God because we get “pressed on” to become what He desires. We are the blob of dough! God chooses the plan for our life and presses us into what He wants us to be. He will use whatever tool or experience He deems necessary that will allow us to become something that pleases Him. Play Doh makes me think about God’s plans for us!
God makes us on purpose. We are not random creations. There is no one else like you. There is no one else like me. The One God made us uniquely one of a kind. Yesterday, in my She Writes For Him conference, our writing instructor, Cynthia Cavanaugh, made a simple statement. “There is noone else like you with your story.” Doesn’t that make you feel a little more important as a part of God’s plan? And doesn’t it make that thought more reverent, holy and special that God, our creator loves us enough to make us unique and different from each other?
Know ye that the Lord is God; it is He that has made us, and not we ourselves. We are his people, and the sheep of his flock. Psalm 99:3
God presses into us but sometimes we pull back. Yes, us, the dough, the blob! We try to pull back from what God may have for us. I have done it many times myself because it was too scary. I thought I could see what God was doing and I pulled back because I did not want to be what He seemed to be making me. I was too afraid to totally let Him have control. I mean, shouldn’t I approve His plan first? What if I don’t feel capable of doing a ministry that takes my time every single day? Oh, wait, that is what I am doing now and He is carrying me! He does that! I feel sometimes I am just along for a willing ride and He is taking me places I did not know I would like! Have you ever felt that way? Sometimes He allows life trials that threaten to make us lose our way. Even then, we can let Him have control. There is great peace in accepting His plan!
…In the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by. I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. Psalm 57:1-2
We do not know God’s purpose all the time. Play Doh sure does not know, nor can it make itself into what I plan for it to be. When God presses into us and allows things to shape us, when the Holy Spirit nudges us one way or another and when we see that God is impressing us for His purposes, we see that He is making us into what He wants us to become. Just as Play Doh is not nearly intelligent enough to know what we can may make of it…we are not intelligent or wise enough to know what God can make of us if we will just let Him do His work. But, we can ask Him for His wisdom!
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. James 1:5
How can we do that, actively let God do His work? We can willingly go and do what He is impressing us to do. The Bible says God made man in His own image, so we are like God already. Wow! (But there is a BUT…) But if we want to be more like God, we need His character. Jesus set the perfect example for us. He was a copy of God in human form. We see the shape we are meant to be by reading in the Bible what Jesus said and did. We can see His heart, the heart of God. So now, we can either decide to try and make ourselves into what we are determined to make of ourselves or we can put our trust in our Creator. The way that David does this is to take action! Notice the bolded words below as he delights and meditates and fixes His eyes on God’s ways!
In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. Psalm 119:14-15
Have you, like me, determined that God’s ways and plans are scary at times? It is an “Adventure of Trust.” (Thank you, Lord for that wonderful thought, btw…) Do you have all things figured out or do you, like me, have some serious delighting and meditating and fixing of my eyes to do? As a fellow blob of dough to another, let’s allow ourselves to be shaped!
Dear Father God,
You are such a great Father! Where do we begin, to tell You how much we love You and why? You just have everything in control and are working in our own individual lives for Your own wonderful purposes. That makes us all feel so special to You! Thank You for making us uniquely qualified to do Your will for us. Forgive us, please, when we get scared of what You are asking us to do. We want to be more like willing dough. As You press into us, help us to remember You are making us that way for a reason. When our trials are too hard to understand, shine Your light into our hearts and give us hope. We will press into You too, so we walk away imprinted with the likeness of You. You are almost too wonderful to comprehend, yet we love trying to do so! A personal request… Please bless my conference mentors and friends with an amazing day of glorifying You through words that you give them and us. May we become what You intend. We love you so much! Amen
Love and prayers to all. Have a blessed day of being a piece of beautiful dough for God!
Just me. Just His.
Tina
Glory in the Morning 