Stretched

I'm once again joining the writers of Five Minute Friday, where we are given a theme word each Friday, and we write for just five minutes on that theme, unedited, and resist the urge to tidy it up.    

I haven't done this for several years, and have decided to give it another go, thanks to encouragement from my daughter, Elizabeth, who got me started on this crazy blog-writing journey in the first place.  

Obviously, it's not Friday any more but here we are anyway.   

The theme word is STRETCH.

Stretched beyond what I thought I could endure.    Like the edges of a river that are stretched and gouged out by a major flood, my heart has been searched and stretched and enlarged over the last 12 months.   

My understanding of Him has stretched considerably.  My capacity to receive Him, to receive from Him, has been stretched by all the heart surgery, the sculpting, the chiselling, the scraping.    And I am grateful.  I know His love now more than I ever thought possible.  

And I thought He was done with that.  I thought this year was a year to just launch into whatever He was preparing me for last year.   But no, there's more stretching and chiselling and scraping.   

My accountability has been stretched.   Things that were okay before are not okay now.   He has given me the capacity for more, and now He expects more.  I am undone.  Like Paul, who was Saul, I am starting to know this Jesus I've served for most of my life.    

And so the stretching continues.    What that means I do not know.   But I do know this.  I know that the God who asks me to stretch, to enlarge the place of my tent, to stretch the curtain wide, to allow Him to give more and expect more, has more and is more than I can imagine.  He is more than enough for me.  He is Jehovah Jireh, my provider, and El-Shaddai, more than enough.   

"Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back;  lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.   Isa 54:2

For your Maker is your husband - the Lord Almighty is His name - the Holy One is your Redeemer; He is called the God of all the earth.   Isa 54:5