As we persevere with spending time in the Word, we may begin to discover unexpected things. Maybe not this week or next, but sometime over the next year, God will open your eyes. He will peel back a layer or tear off some plaster and lathe, and something unexpectedly difficult will be revealed. It is inevitable when we grow. It is also necessary.
The challenge is what we will do next. Renovation, renewal, restoration all sound lovely until you actually have to get into the nitty-gritty (emphasis on GRITTY) and get to it.
Wasp's nests, mouse skeletons, piles of squirrel droppings and so much more show up when you begin to renovate. They are kinda gross but they are also ere evidence of life. Things living side by side in the walls of a person's home. Cleaning them out, restoring the defenses, and making my home inviting for me and less inviting for those invaders is important but messy work.
This past year my eyes have been opened to selfish patterns that have shaped how my husband and I make decisions and until recently I have been completely blind to these behaviors and thought processes. Peeling back and revealing these patterns have been very painful but necessary. Without my time in God's Word I would have been unable to face these truths at all, instead I would have hunkered down in my defenses and shifted the blame elsewhere. But when we "know the Truth" it really will set us free. But no one said freedom would be simple, easy, or comfortable.