PAINT NEW PICTURES

By: Dennis Harworth

      Before a baseball was held in my hand, I was a LA Dodgers fan.  My Dad listened to the games so intently that he drew me in at a very young age to enjoy America’s pastime.  I became such a fan that I would sneak my transistor radio into bed at night to listen to the late games.  I knew each player’s name, the position they played, and their batting average.  All the players to me were impressive, but the one that had the most profound impact on my life was Maury Wills.  He still holds the Major League record for the most stolen bases in a season for a switch-hitter.  His base stealing was an art and I studied every facet of it carefully.  But it was the newspaper picture of Maury Wills safely stealing a base that changed my life.  This picture was carefully cut out, taped on my bedroom wall, and examined daily until I could literally picture me in the cloud of dust, sliding under the tag, as the umpire yelled “Safe!”  It built such a confident expectation in me that I could hardly wait until I was old enough to play. 

     This was a very tall order as I was not tall and sleek. I was a roly-poly pudgeball with triple ripples of fat layering my body.  But the picture that I had painted in my mind was so strong it dominated everything I did and how I saw myself.  I learned to enjoy running and sliding as well as the fundamentals of baseball.  Running really became fun once the chubby thighs stopped slapping each other.  Plus, I discovered that there was a little speed in those short, “stocky” legs.  As time progressed, all this paid off.  By age 11, I was the fastest runner in the entire Little League.  That speed was highlighted the following year when I was able to steal home twice in the game off the same pitcher!

     How much more can the exceedingly great and precious promises of God (2 Peter 1:4) paint pictures of hope backed by the power of His Word?!  How much more can you be fully persuaded by the divine images of what God promises that He is also able to perform?! (Romans 4:21).  How much more by these powerful promises can you see yourself obtaining and enjoying the very desires of Almighty God for your life?!   You have seen well, for God is alert and active, watching over His Word to perform it and to change your life forever! (Jeremiah 1:12 AMPC).  For the power of His Word will always fulfill the promise of His Word!

     When you let God’s precious promises paint new pictures in your heart, you can have the confident expectation and assurance that all things are possible with God.  Nothing can hold you back from God’s absolute best under any condition, circumstance or situation.  If you are experiencing anything less, take the Word of God and shatter those images of sickness and disease, poverty and lack, failures and shortcomings, etc.  Paint new pictures by meditating on His promises until they replace anything and everything that is contrary to His will and His ways.  Let hope’s picture be so vivid that all you can see is those promises actually being fulfilled in your life.

     Begin to see yourself, for example, being healthy and whole, never missing work, and enjoying the simple pleasures of life robbed from you due to sickness.  See yourself prosperous, lacking nothing, and being a giver instead of one always being in need.  See your wayward children serving God and hugging you as they tell you, “I love you”.  Whatever you need in your life, hope will paint the picture of any promise of God being fulfilled.  Each time you see yourself in the picture, the promises of God will become more real, the image will become sharper, and your faith will grow to make it happen.

     It took a few years as a child for me to be able to run fast and steal bases.  Most of us have held onto old negative images of how we see ourselves for a whole lot longer than how our life is now.  So, it might take a while to picture yourself as God sees you, but you can do it and it will come, if you stay in the Word.  Paint the pictures of hope by meditating on the Word until it transforms you by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove for yourselves what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect in His sight for you. (Romans 12:2 AMPC). 

     However long it takes, it is so worth the wait to see the divine images and pictures being fulfilled.  Let me emphasize one more time: Hope will paint any picture of any promise of God being fulfilled.  So, if you are sick and tired of seeing the painting of your life as broke down, busted and disgusted, sick, sad, and sorrowful—it is time for a change.  It is time to have God’s best—His perfect will.  It is the time for you to

PAINT NEW PICTURES.