Extreme Makeover

Has anyone ever watched the show "Extreme Makeover?" I love that show when I have time to watch because it focuses on helping families that are in need of assistance in some way and their home has suffered for lack of income to repair it properly because of the extenuating circumstances. So it is very moving to watch families get their lives back on track or at least get the help that will allow them to experience life in a better way. As we watch the show, you'll notice how everything is done in phase. The crew comes in and analyzes the situation to see how bad the home really is. Next step of the process is moving the family away from the home by sending them on a wonderful vacation to escape what is about to happen to their old home. While the family is away, the crew moves to the demolition phase and completely destroy the old home with all the cracks and crevices from lack of attention to its foundation. Lastly, a newly constructed home is built to serve all the needs of the family. So to review, there are 4 steps of involved.....analyze, move/protect, demolition and finally......a new construction. The family comes back to a new beautiful home with a stronger and more solid foundation equipped to serve all of the needs of the family. OK so now that you understand what is involved to get to the new construction, let's look at us. In our personal lives, there are many challenges that keep us from living up to our full potential. In some cases, some of us struggle with addictions and there are may.....not just drugs. An addiction can be anything that is bad for you with drugs and alcohol being the most common. But there are other addictions such as tobacco from smoking, overeating, overspending, obsessed with sex and the list goes on and on. With these addictions, we usually end up in a place where we don't want to be or need to be.....usually and most unfortunately.....rock bottom. Satan has convinced us that these things are good for us and Satan has convinced us that we need these things in order to live a good life. And yes.....we enjoy them at the time....but after a while the effect is long lasting and we find ourselves needing more and before we know what hit us, we have destroyed our lives. But I am here to tell you that there is a God that sits high and looks low and analyzes our situation to see how bad we have messed up and He is just waiting to make us whole again. But the Good News is there is nothing to bad or too difficult that our God cannot repair! Of course He is watching and waiting for us to get so frustrated with trying to fix our our own problems and when we get to that point, we feel complete hopelessness. We feel that God has totally forgotten about us. We need to stop trying to fix our own problems because we then turn to God as an alternative for fixing our problems. This is where so many of us go wrong........God should always be our Primary problem solver. In turning back to God, we are wanting to move away from the things that are binding us and keeping us from giving God all of our praise. We want God to move those conflicts and barriers that are blocking our view of what is most important in our life. We ask God to remove and resolve everything in our path that is preventing us from seeing the God that is faithful and true to His Word. Now that we are weak and lacking that spiritual strength and power that can only come from God. God hears our cries of pain and desperation and begins to move in our lives. He begins to demolish all that is in our way and everything that is blocking our view that keeps us from seeing Him in all of His glory. Praise God! When we begin to focus on God and not our own circumstances and situation, we can see how God brings in His wrecking ball breaking down those obstacles and those barriers that have us bound and are preventing us from seeing the Glory of God! God provides us with the tools we need as He performs the necessary demolition in our lives making us ready for the new construction! In the book of Ephesians Chapter 6:13-16, God makes mention of the tools we need to get through the demolition period in our lives because its going to be rough! "There fore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything to stand, Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." Hallelujah! Praise God! God is able to get us through weakest and the darkest moments of our lives, if we only Trust Him. So after all has been said and done and the demolition is over, out of the wreckage comes a beautiful new construction in us. Because we put our trust and faith in God we were able to move and turn away from those things that were binding us and we learned that we can cast our burdens on Him. Because we put our faith in God, He has demolished those things in us that were destroying us either physically or mentally and because of our faith in God, He has created in us a clean heart and a renewed spirit. Somebody ought to be excited about that and shouting right about now! Thank you oh Great Jehovah for making me over again! I encourage you all right now to allow God to perform that Extreme Makeover that is needed in your life to! Praise Him! Amen!