Is God Stripping You?

You are probably wondering, what in the world is this.  Well I had begun tearing down the wallpaper in the bathroom months ago.  Each time I had a moment I would go tear off another little strip.  I wasn't making much progress getting it down.  It is a big bathroom. So while it was snowing yesterday I had a goal.....work on the wallpaper.  What better time to do it since I certainly couldn't budge out of my house.
So, yesterday morning I decided to get going on it.
I was up and down the ladder, bending and stuping, squatting and reaching.  I knew if I stopped to rest I would not get back to it so I persevered....for five hours.  Now that might not sound like much to you whipper snappers but for someone my age....it was a great achievement.  I was poohed afterwards.
I have just a little bit left to do and the walls will be stripped.  My goal is to complete the job while snowed in.  Then I can call my friend Sheila to complete the job with a fresh coat of paint.  Mind you I am also cleaning as I go so when it is completed it will fresh and clean.  No more wallpaper goes up on that wall...it was too difficult a process to remove.  Maybe we should think about that when He removes our stuff, not to allow it to stick to us again cause He will use whatever it takes to remove it permanently.
I got to thinking about the stripping God does on us as we allow Him.  Some things come off easily in long even strips and some areas take tedious work little by little, piece by piece.  Somethings seem to be glued on to stay or maybe we hold fast to them.  Thankfully He doesn't stop and start like I did.  He steadily works to strip us of pride, control, addictions, selfishness, disobedience, just to name a few.
Sometimes we want to hold on to the strongholds He wants to strip and it takes a stronger hand to totally release it in our lives.  The stripping at these times may be a long hard process.  I am so glad God loved me enough to begin the stripping process so long ago in my life.
I love the passage in Joel 2:25, "And I will restore or replace for you the years that the locust has eaten, the hopping locust, the stripping locust, and the crawling locust, My great army which I sent among you."
One day as I was reading that the part that says, "that I sent among you" just blew me away.  He did the stripping, He sent the locust.  But with that passage comes the promise that He will one day restore what the locust took.  The stripping may be painful at the time but the restoring....man is that joyous.
So worth the stripping process to be washed as white as snow.  Learn to let go of those things He is trying to strip away.  It is for your good and one day you will look back and know that it was worth it.