Rubber Bands

For the most part, human beings are unyielding, inflexible creatures. We love our structure, our schedules and our routines. We are steeped in tradition and don't bend when circumstances around us change.

I have a bowl full of rubber bands in my kitchen drawer. If I dump them out on the counter, they retain their shape and size. They will just lay there, unchanging, in the same position.

But in that unchanging position, they can never be used. The purpose of a rubber band is to be stretched around something so it can be held together. If that rubber band never changes its shape, never gets stretched beyond where it is right now, it can't be used for its intended purpose.

You and I are exactly the same way. We may think it would be wonderful to stay exactly the same for the rest of our lives, never having to change or adapt. We get comfortable and stable in the moment we're in right now - why change that?

Because God has a purpose for us, just like we have a purpose for that rubber band. If we don't get stretched a little, forced to change a little, He can't use us for our intended purpose. Yes, this moment may be happy and comfortable, but we'd be useless to God without a little stretching.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9

Our human minds may never understand the purpose behind the stretching and changing we go through in this life. But the thoughts and ways of God are perfect and higher than we could ever imagine.

What is God asking you to yield to today? Are you being asked to stretch beyond what you think is your capacity? I pray we will each remember that our comfortable shape is being changed for a purpose - the Lord's purpose.

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