My parents took our family cherry-picking one summer. It was at a beautiful farm with hundreds of cherry trees. I was ecstatic because cherries are one of my favorite fruits. I remember taking the bag the I was given and stuffing it with as many cherries as possible. It was bursting at the seams. My mind raced with the thoughts of eating all of them. My mother had other ideas. She made it into the best cherry pie I have ever had in my life. God’s blessing can often feel like that. He gives us more than we can handle, and then He turns it into something much better than we can imagine.
Isaiah 54:2-3
Enlarge the site of your tent, and let your tent curtains be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your ropes, and drive your pegs deep. For you will spread out to the right and to the left, and your descendants will dispossess nations and inhabit the desolate cities.”
Broken Curse
After Israel’s exile in Babylon God would bless the nation so much that they would burst at the seams. They would come back and grow as a nation and be blessed by God and prosper. The women would sing as they push out pagan nations and inhabit desolate cities — what a beautiful prophecy of the blessing that God would bring. Isaiah uses the metaphor of a tent having to expand and increase it’s footprint because it is bursting at the seams.
Turn the Heat Up
There will be times when God takes us through a time of correction and testing. When we respond the way He wants us to He then brings us out of it and pours His blessings upon us. We don’t deserve it, but it happens nonetheless. We feel like we are bursting at the seams as well. It is at those moments where need to give all the glory to God.
Bursting at the Seams
Many Christian want the blessings of God without the testing and correction. They want to be refined like pure gold without going through the fire. Some impurities in our life will only come out with increased heat. Don’t despise this happening. When the nonessential characteristics burn off, we realize how weighed down we were. If you feel the heat is too much in your life, look to God and allow Him to finish the work.
