Picked Clean

[Chad]

Picked Clean - February 13, 2006

When walking on the beach at Sanibell Island, I came upon something I'd never seen before: a perfectly formed skeleton of a fish. Nearly every bone was intact, from the head down the backbone, and including the ribs. Birds and scavengers had picked it clean. The tail was still attached; however, little flesh remained on the bones. One seagull, determined in his effort, was pulling on one of the few remnants of meat still attached.

Have you ever felt as if you had been "picked clean"? Have circumstances and people pulled on your life until you feel dried up, brittle and bare; exposed as the fish skeleton I saw? When you feel this way, and at the end of your rope, just remember that God wants to put a safety net of His protection around and under you. It may be in the form of another Christian to intercede in prayer for you, or one to call you with an encouraging word. Someone may take time to just be a good listener. God may wrap you in His love by giving you a glimpse of unexpected beauty or a heartfelt laugh. He might just grant a reprieve from your oppressive circumstances.

We should be thankful that we, as God's children, can be put back together again. Unlike the fish I saw that was picked clean, we NEVER are. No one can take God away from us.

Contributed by Marion Smith

 

[jiggyfly]

No one can take God away from us.

Amen. Thanks Chad.
There is an importance of having the flesh(self) picked away until all that remains is the core(Christ). Something that that has been said many times rings true in this scenario, when Christ is all you have, it becomes apparent that Christ is all you need.

 

[SpiritLedEd]

Over the last twelve to fourteen months, so much negative has happened in my family. I felt as if I was being pulled through a keyhole. The two major issues were my wife's mental health and my son's physical health. My wife misused her medications and wound up hospitalized at the end of June. She is now in a 12-step program and doing well. My son was hit by Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (a particularly aggressive kind) in March. God miraculously healed him of this cancer in the summer. Then, on Thanksgiving Day, both lungs collapsed and he was hospitalized for nearly three months. For my son, my wife and I gathered lots of prayer warriors about us and we stormed the gates of Heaven for David's healings. And in His awesome grace, God sent healing both times.

The secret for us lay in the message of the parable on persistence (Lk 9:5-10), "For everyone who asks, receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." (v10). I didn't give up in seeking healing for my wife and she and I did not give up in seeking healing for our son.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

SLE