Take The Lid Off 7-Day Reading PlanSample

Many of us are slow learners. We’ve mistakenly put a lid on our lives and lived with the tension of built-up pressure for years. The pressure builds when our full potential isn’t being released into the world. It manifests as tension when we’re not living the life God has in store for us. When our covered “pot” is boiling out of control, the steam of trapped potential is hissing, puddles of problems gather around us, and we become so frustrated we don’t know what to do! If we leave the lid on our lives, we run the risk of ruining what’s in the pot—our relationships, our dreams, and our goals—and stress will rob us of creativity and joy. Our self-confidence will be crushed, and others will begin to say disheartening things to us and about us. Fear and doubt will consume our thoughts, and we’ll conclude we’ll never be able to see our dreams realized or make anything of our lives. Everything in the pot will be ruined—or at least, so it will seem to be.

Perhaps people in our past have instructed us on various ways to take the lid off, but we didn’t listen. We thought we knew how to “cook our lives” and make them delicious and inspiring, but we were wrong. Now is the time to listen. We’ve seen the damage and heard the hissing long enough. It is now time to do something! Take the lid off. It is never too late. God is a God of second chances (and third and fourth chances too). He delights when people finally turn to Him, experience His grace and forgiveness, take the lid off their lives, and experience the joy, power, and peace of a life well lived. 

Most of us live with the lid on our lives—glued on, stuck on, or welded tight. We’re trapped in a boiling pot of broken hearts and shattered dreams. We hiss in our resentment and self-pity, but we don’t do anything productive to solve the problem. Day after day, we just boil till we overflow in anger, shame, blame, and frustration. When we finally take the lid off, we can more fully engage in the life God has created for us and live out the potentials we were intended to fulfill. With our “lids off” we are in closer contact with the unlimited power of His Spirit.