This week’s Five Minute Friday prompt is on the word open.

It was easy for me to keep things bottled up. I wouldn’t confront my past. I let the enemy have a stronghold over so many places of hurt and I just wouldn’t allow God to have access to my heart. Not willingly.

I wouldn’t open.

Bottle it up and move on. It’ll pass.

But it never did. I’d internalize every detail and you know what they call that?  Systematic stress.

It eats you alive before you even know what happened. Peace seems nonexistent. Why bother working through the problems when suppression is so much easier?

But it isn’t. It’s slow poison and one that gives the devil a foothold.

Now, one by one, I give them to God and it’s fresh air every time I do. When I speak, He heals me. I can’t strive for perfection or a place of protection from the things that aren’t. Perfect, that is.

I can embrace this new place. There’s peace here. Acceptance. Baggage and all.

Because He’s opened these doors. Opened my heart. Opened His arms.

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Open

Start:

I’ve opened my heart to spill out the details. It took some time. At first, it seemed somewhat hard. Like words might be gathered up by hands eager to twist and distort those stories. Ears who listen without positive intent. Eyes that look encouraging, but harbor deceit behind them.

“Who do you trust?” I would hear myself say.

…and it’s not easy to build that back once it’s lost.

But I find that in those untold stories…those ones that are heard upon my voice for the first time…comes a healing. I get it out of the dark places where I let it fester and into the light where it unfurls, looking for open arms. Those stories come marching in, one by one, waiting for a chance to be loved and used for good. For His purpose…

I no longer change the locks inside my head…inside my heart. It’s open, where the light continues to pour in and shed warmth onto those chilling places that have no place being locked away inside of me.

And they’re useful, see. That’s why the enemy frightens us into thinking we can’t share. That honesty must be traded in for pride. Selfish ambition. Yeah, we pile that up in our own personal storehouses so we can cash it in on another lie down the road. One that makes us think we don’t need anyone but us.

One that makes us think we don’t need a Savior.

It’s a tiny ball of snow, rolling down a hill…growing as is gobbles up more flakes along the way.

We’re meant to be open, yes? Our stories are meant to be shared. There’s glory in this, you know.

For Him.

We can show the world that He redeems. Our past. Our present. And our future.

And when we lock it up…refuse to open…the enemy wins. Is that what we want?

What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.  (Revelation 3:7-8a,b)

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Photo credit: Elisa Malinverni

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Won’t you join me this week for Five Minute Friday over at Kate Motaung’s page?  We’d love to see you there!  Just familiarize yourself with this page first, no editing, and set your watch for five minutes.

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