Watch Out For the Dryer
Watch out for the dryer
“He who is coming will come and will not delay, but my righteous one will live by faith and if he shrinks back I will not be pleased with him.” Hebrews 10:38
This was the passage I read this morning. Honestly, I’ve read it many times, but today the words shrink and back jumped right off the page. What does the Lord mean when he says “shrink back”?
I closed my eyes and ask God to help me understand. I quickly got a visual of a beautiful shirt, and I saw myself wearing it. It was new, and colorful, and I was proud, and I felt so beautiful and confident in it. Immediately, I got a different visual of the same shirt after it had been washed and then put in the dryer. It was faded, no longer looked new, and was shriveled up at least two sizes smaller. I felt the disappointment.
I understood God’s message to me. I remembered the day I was baptized and gave my life to the Lord. I was new, vibrant, bold, and I felt beautiful as an adopted child of God. Nothing was going to stop me from fulfilling God’s purpose for my life. I was confident of my salvation.
God knows the troubles life will bring on us this side of heaven. He knows we will fall short as his children, and be tested by the enemy. We are just like the shirt being put in the dryer. We have an enemy trying to shrink us back, and make us believe that the Lord can’t use us.
God ask us to persevere, and he reminds us in Ephesians 6:10-13 to be strong in the Lord, and in his mighty power. He tells us to remember our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the powers of the dark which is spiritual warfare.
The Lord would never ask us to do what we are incapable of doing. HE tells us not to throw away our confidence and do not shrink back or he will not be pleased with us. Since we are made righteous by our faith in Jesus Christ, we can be strong, bold, vibrant, beautiful, and confident. Hebrews 10:39 tells us we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.
Watch out of the dryer, and be sure to read the warning label.
Be Decided,
Kim
