Got You Shook!!

Confession is good for the soul, so let’s all make an admission: none of us really likes it when our world is shaken up. Freeing, isn’t it? 

From time to time, things come along that rock our familiar surroundings, our little corner of the world – trees are uprooted, buildings are toppled and the very ground we stand on has an instability that threatens to loosen our grasp on faith itself. And sometimes, "from time to time" seems more like ALL the time! After all, Satan is just waiting on a chance to wreak havoc in our lives: "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour". (1 Peter 5:8)

But there is actually plenty of reason not to panic when things start shaking. Sometimes it’s God who will grab us by the ankles, turn us upside-down and shake! Though this can certainly feel unpleasant to say the least, if it's the Lord doing the shaking, then it's definitely necessary. When HE shakes us, it's just like the bandits in the cartoons: His purpose is to get all the stuff out of our pockets. But unlike the cartoons, what He's shaking out is all the junk that distracts us from His purpose for us: He’s shaking out money, beauty aids, lottery tickets we didn’t need to buy, stuff we shouldn’t eat, things we shouldn’t smoke, cell phones, phone numbers that shouldn't BE in our cell phones.... God is shaking out the stuff that will occupy our hands to the detriment of what He wants to use them for...or what He may want to put in them!

So the next time things get a little shaky in your world, don't be too quick to blame the devil – it just might be God freeing up your hands!

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11