The Cinderella moments in life are often sparse. Those times when there is a sweet harmony, everybody looks pretty and works together to make good things happen. Perhaps the season before the ball is how we can more identify with her. Cinderella’s life was anything but perfect. The same characters in the story of Cinderella are present in our lives and every day Satan sets them into our path as a stumbling block in hopes of thwarting those Cinderella moments.
The wicked stepmother
Miss negativity herself, the deva of DOUBT. We scoff at poor Thomas for doubting the Lord and yet every day doubt creeps into my life. I don’t need anyone telling me I’m not good enough, I got the market cornered on that one. Jesus said in Matthew 21:21 ~ … Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. In Christ we have the power to move every mountain that stands in our path, but it’s our own disbelief that can cause us to listen to a naysayer or our own negative attitude and give up on the journey before it’s ever begun.
The ugly stepsisters
Damsels of DISCOURAGEMENT. What a number they did on poor Cinderella. Over and over they used their power and position to tear her down. They flaunted their goodly apparel and taunted her over her rags. How could she possible think she was worthy of going to the ball, look in the mirror for crying out loud, who could love that! Wow… I just wrote my world. How could I possibly think that I deserve Heaven or the goodness thereof when my tattered worldly garment is filthy and covered with sin? Most of the time I don’t view myself as a child of the King (one of my favorites songs that I sing) but more aptly see myself as the beggars daughter, and yet scripture says in Galatians 4:8-9 ~ Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Why do we listen?
The fairy godmother
The dame of DISILLUSION. She was good in the story of Cinderella, but our lives are not a fairytale. They’re real. Very real. There is no “bippity boppity boo” and life is all better. Sometimes the dress doesn’t fit and the ride isn’t a chariot but rather a two door Chevette with a faulty transmission. Magic doesn’t always happen. What then? Enter the stepmother and stepsisters into our lives again, and this time they’re set on destruction. Life isn’t always going to be perfect, so how do we deal with what’s real?
We rely on the Prince. They don’t call Him the Prince of Peace for no reason.
That mountain that needs moved, He’s the great excavator!
The mirror that’s mounted before you. That’s how you see you, not how the Lord sees you. You’re in a robe of white friend!
The magic that’s missing? No it’s not magic. It’s the God of Daniel, the same God of Shari who Nebuchadnezzer proclaimed when he discovered the truth.
Daniel 4:7-8 ~ Then came in the magicians, the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers: and I told the dream before them; but they did not make known unto me the interpretation thereof. But at the last Daniel came in before me, whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the name of my God, and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods: and before him I told the dream, saying,
The magicians couldn’t make sense of Nebuchadnezzer’s dream, and the world can’t make sense of your dreams either. But the truth of the matter is we serve a God Who put’s dreams in your heart, and they’re not a fairytale, they’re real. And He can bring them to pass. But just like Daniel you have pray and stay in the Word of God so that He can reveal the truth and you’re not off chasing a pumpkin being pulled by mice.