Soiled Showers
Saturday I had the house to myself. It was time to scrub the shower. For the last month I have been eyeballing the grime and soap scum clinging to our shower walls. It was bugging me, but I was too busy to get to it OR I was free and my husband was sleeping in the next room.
The irony makes me chuckle. I was climbing into a dirty "room" to get clean. It made me think. There's more, vacuum cleaners, brooms, mops, sinks, dishcloths, and the pumps on hand soaps are usually the filthiest thing we own--and they are all what we use to clean.
Then I started to wonder if this irony existed in my spiritual journey as well. Am I trying to clean with dirty tools?
The answer is yes, I am. I have even taught children about salvation using a dirty/clean analogy.
About 2 summers ago I taught my daycare children that sin was the nastiest, stickiest mud and it covers us. Then I explained that Heaven was like a giant bright white room. Inside this bright white room was God and we could feel His love even through our mud. All we will want is get closer, but we can't because of our mud.
I told them we could take a million showers with the best loofa and soap, but it would not help. We needed Jesus.
Only by believing that Jesus was God's son who died on the cross and then defeated death--could we ever be washed clean of our mud.
Every time I try to fix my sins myself - I am trying to clean with dirty tools. I can make changes to my routines to help me avoid that mud puddle (sin) again, but I cannot clean off the mud I already have on me.
I need Jesus to clean my muddied soul. I need to tell him I am muddy, what puddle I found. I need to say I am sorry for getting muddy (not following him). Then I need to trust that He cleaned me and will help me avoid that puddle again if I follow Him.
If I am honest, I usually sort of admit I am muddy and then I ask Jesus to clean me. I won't be truly clean until I follow the directions better,
"if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
2 Chronicles 7:14
I only swallow my pride a little. I need to fully humble myself.
I pray.
Do I seek God's face? Not very well, definitely not with all my heart. (But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy 4:29)
Do I turn from my wicked ways? Well I usually find another mud puddle or sometimes the same puddle -- so again Not very well.
My pride keeps me from seeking God and getting a clean heart with a more faithful spirit. (Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:10) It keeps me trying to wash my sins away in a soiled shower.
Challenge: Pray Psalm 139:23-24 everyday this week and allow God to clean you.
"Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting."
The irony makes me chuckle. I was climbing into a dirty "room" to get clean. It made me think. There's more, vacuum cleaners, brooms, mops, sinks, dishcloths, and the pumps on hand soaps are usually the filthiest thing we own--and they are all what we use to clean.
Then I started to wonder if this irony existed in my spiritual journey as well. Am I trying to clean with dirty tools?
The answer is yes, I am. I have even taught children about salvation using a dirty/clean analogy.
About 2 summers ago I taught my daycare children that sin was the nastiest, stickiest mud and it covers us. Then I explained that Heaven was like a giant bright white room. Inside this bright white room was God and we could feel His love even through our mud. All we will want is get closer, but we can't because of our mud.
I told them we could take a million showers with the best loofa and soap, but it would not help. We needed Jesus.
Only by believing that Jesus was God's son who died on the cross and then defeated death--could we ever be washed clean of our mud.
Every time I try to fix my sins myself - I am trying to clean with dirty tools. I can make changes to my routines to help me avoid that mud puddle (sin) again, but I cannot clean off the mud I already have on me.
I need Jesus to clean my muddied soul. I need to tell him I am muddy, what puddle I found. I need to say I am sorry for getting muddy (not following him). Then I need to trust that He cleaned me and will help me avoid that puddle again if I follow Him.
If I am honest, I usually sort of admit I am muddy and then I ask Jesus to clean me. I won't be truly clean until I follow the directions better,
"if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
2 Chronicles 7:14
I only swallow my pride a little. I need to fully humble myself.
I pray.
Do I seek God's face? Not very well, definitely not with all my heart. (But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy 4:29)
Do I turn from my wicked ways? Well I usually find another mud puddle or sometimes the same puddle -- so again Not very well.
My pride keeps me from seeking God and getting a clean heart with a more faithful spirit. (Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:10) It keeps me trying to wash my sins away in a soiled shower.
Challenge: Pray Psalm 139:23-24 everyday this week and allow God to clean you.
"Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting."
These just keep getting better and better, great message girl.
ReplyDeleteThis is so good.
ReplyDelete