hem me in, behind and before,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nand <\/span>lay your hand upon me.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n6\u00a0<\/span> Such knowledge is <\/span>too wonderful for me;<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nit is high; I cannot attain it.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n7\u00a0<\/span> Where shall I go from your Spirit?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nOr where <\/span>shall I flee from your presence?<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n8\u00a0<\/span> If I ascend to heaven, you are there!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nIf I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n9\u00a0<\/span> If I take the wings of the morning<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nand dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n10\u00a0<\/span> even there your hand shall <\/span>lead me,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nand your right hand shall hold me.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n11\u00a0<\/span> If I say, <\/span>\u201cSurely the darkness shall cover me,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nand the light about me be night,\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n12\u00a0<\/span> even the darkness is not dark to you;<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nthe night is bright as the day,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nfor darkness is as light with you.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n13\u00a0<\/span> For you <\/span>formed my inward parts;<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nyou <\/span>knitted me together in my mother’s womb.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n14\u00a0<\/span> I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nWonderful are your works;<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nmy soul knows it very well.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n15\u00a0<\/span> My frame was not hidden from you,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nwhen I was being made in secret,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nintricately woven in <\/span>the depths of the earth.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n16\u00a0<\/span> Your eyes saw my unformed substance;<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nin your <\/span>book were written, every one of them,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nthe days that were formed for me,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nwhen as yet there was none of them. ESV<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nI am humbled by\u00a0his love and power. I am comforted by His strength and purpose. When I read these words, reflect, I feel known. Don’t we all long for that? Long to be understood, known. My husband knows me better than any other human being, yet God is more. When I sit with Him, my Father, I feel a beautiful sense of freedom, acceptance, and knowledge.<\/p>\n
While God fills me and sustains me there is another aspect. The humbling, breaking, correcting. Painful and uncomfortable at times. Still, despite the pressing on the heart, there is a greater sense of freedom in the letting go and reshaping. As the years have gone I have seen the fruit that good pruning\u00a0provides. It is good. God is good.<\/p>\n
Psalm 139: 23-24\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>\u00a023 Search me, O God, and know my heart!<\/em><\/p>\nTry me and know my thoughts!<\/em><\/p>\n24\u00a0<\/span> And see if there be any grievous way in me,<\/em><\/p>\nand lead me in the way everlasting! ESV<\/em><\/p>\nThe searching, the finding out, the pain of seeing my weaknesses; it humbles me. I don’t like it, but I know it is for good. I know the letting go is leading “me in the way everlasting”<\/em>. I don’t know about you, but that’s the way I want to go…<\/p>\n\n
Matthew 7:17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. ESV<\/em><\/p>\nMatthew 12:33 Either make the tree good and its fruit <\/em>good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. ESV<\/em><\/p>\nJohn 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. ESV<\/em><\/p>\n