Last month I painted my bedroom and took this photo when I finished. In order to paint I removed all the smaller furniture from the room but just moved that drawing table out of the way. I'm showing you this photo for a reason. I'm going to use it to illustrate the Parable of the Scissors....
Jesus often used examples from everyday life to illustrate the teaching of a spiritual truth. He used lost coins, lost sheep, lost sons, and various other things like soil and seeds. In my case it was lost scissors.
I keep a pair of orange-handled scissors in the living room where I read the newspaper so that I can cut out articles or coupons. A few weeks ago I noticed they were missing. I figured I must have carried them elsewhere and set them down so I searched the house for every place I might have left them to no avail. After needing them several times and having to resort to ripping out an article or coupon I decided to look in my stash of unused supplies for another pair of scissors I could leave in the living room. I found a small pair of child-size green-handled scissors. They would do.....until I went to use them the next time I needed them and found they were for left-handers. So, I was back to wondering where in the world could I have left those orange-handled scissors! The next day I was grooming my dog as I always do in the morning. In the basket of grooming tools is an orange-handled pair of hair-cutting scissors--but not the missing ones. Everytime I see them I'm reminded of my lost scissors. This time something different happened. I saw the scissors in the basket and once again said to myself, "I don't understand why I can't find those scissors." Then I raised my eyes from the basket to gaze across the bedroom when immediately my eyes fell on this.....see the orange just to the right of the chair in the drawing table tray....
This is exactly what God tells us about prayer. When I first couldn't find the orange-handled scissors I replaced them with the green-handled ones, believing they would meet my need when the time came. But I soon found out I couldn't use them. I acknowledged my solution did not work. It wasn't until I acknowledged that I didn't understand why I couldn't find them that I was admitting I was helpless. This was when the answer was shown to me....and that it had been there all along.....I just needed to be in the right place, literally and spiritually.
Jesus said, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." (Matthew 7:7) But scripture also says, "God opposes the arrogant but gives grace to the humble." (James 4:6) I had to be in a place of humbleness by acknowledging my way did not work--I searched in the wrong place and my solution, the green-handled scissors, did not work for me. Once I was in a place of humbleness my eyes were opened, and I saw that the scissors were never lost. It was I who was "lost" in a sense because I was not seeing.
This is also a perfect example of God's salvation. Jesus has already paid for the sin of our original rejection of God's sovereignty. It has been there for us all along--there is nothing we need to do but open the eyes of our heart and see the love God has for us. Once we do, we can't help but have our need filled if it is our heart's desire. "God, who began this good work in you, will carry it through to completion on the day of Christ Jesus." (Philippians 1:6)
Father, thank You for bringing me to the place where I can open my eyes and see all that I need to live the life of faith in You.
Link to scripture: Ephesians 1:18
Take action:
Amen
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