Learning to Let God Shape What We Carry

There are things we carry quietly in our hearts that weigh more than we realize. Old disappointments. Private fears. Beliefs we formed in survival mode and never revisited. Over time, they become familiar, and familiarity can look like truth if we’re not careful. Many of us don’t resist God outright; we resist change. Not because we don’t love Him, but because we’ve learned how to live with what hurts, and letting it go feels risky. Yet the very things we clutch for security often keep us from the freedom God is offering.

Scripture gives us more than encouragement; it gives us instruction through real lives. The New Testament is filled with people who loved Jesus deeply and still struggled to fully understand what He was doing in them. Their stories weren’t preserved to shame us, but to teach us. God shows us the pattern again and again: growth comes through surrender, and blessing follows a heart that remains open and teachable. That truth is especially important in seasons like this one, where pressure is real and faith is being refined.

A Faith That Grows Through Restoration

Peter is one of the clearest examples of this tension. He was bold, passionate, outspoken, and deeply devoted to Jesus. He left everything to follow Him and believed he would never fall away. Yet when pressure came, fear spoke louder than conviction. Peter denied Jesus three times, not because he didn’t love Him, but because his faith hadn’t yet matured to withstand the weight of the moment. Still, Jesus wasn’t surprised. He didn’t revoke Peter’s calling or discard him for failing under stress. He already knew Peter’s heart was still becoming teachable.

After the resurrection, Jesus restored Peter gently, inviting him back into relationship rather than shaming him for failure. In John 21:15–17 (NLT), Jesus asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?”—not to condemn him for his denial, but to heal him. Peter had to face the place where fear had overridden faith, and he had to let truth replace shame. That restoration became the doorway to transformation. The same man who once denied Christ stood up boldly in Acts and preached with authority. His growth didn’t come from avoiding failure; it came from allowing God to address it honestly.

Growth Requires a Teachable Heart

That’s where many of us find ourselves now. We’ve walked with God a long time. We’ve prayed, served, believed, and endured. But some of us are tired, guarded, and set in patterns that once protected us but now restrict us. We default to “this is just how I am” instead of asking God who we are becoming. That posture may feel safe, but it isn’t sustainable. God is always moving us forward, and resistance to growth eventually creates strain in the soul.

God is deeply invested in our spiritual maturity. Ephesians 4:15 (NLT) tells us, “Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church.” Growth requires humility and hunger. It requires the willingness to be taught, corrected, and reshaped rather than insisting on staying the same. Scripture reinforces this posture in James 1:21 (NLT): “So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.”

Positioned for What God Is Ready to Release

Many women sense that this season carries something new, something weighty, something full of promise. That awareness isn’t meant to pressure us or make us anxious. It’s an invitation to readiness. God’s blessings flow most freely where hearts remain soft, honest, and aligned with Him. He doesn’t force transformation; He responds to surrender. And He is far more committed to our wholeness than we are.

So pray often. Slow down enough to listen. Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and show you anything that no longer belongs in this season. When He reveals it, don’t shrink back. Trust that surrender is not loss; it is alignment. Repentance doesn’t close doors; it opens the right ones. And when we remain teachable before God, we find ourselves positioned—not pressured—for everything He has already prepared. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“Positioned, Not Pressured: A Teachable Heart in a Shifting Season”, written for DomesticAbuseAwareness.Org ©2026. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!