Since I seem to be in the unwanted habit of getting up in the wee hours of the morning I decided to do some cleaning this morning. We have been redecorating our kitchen so I thought it fitting to clean the cabinets inside and out. As I cleaned away, I spied a place up high that I knew had to be dusty and dirty. I got a stool to stand on and alas it was as dirty as I thought. I ran my wet rag across it but the film did not come off. The thought ran through my mind, “if no one can see the dirt, is it still really there”? Kind of like, if a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, did it make a noise? Or something like that! At 3:00 a.m. you think strange things like that!
Of course even at that early hour, I tried to put that analogy into my life. I remembered that several months back I did a study called Breaking Free by Beth Moore and through this study many of us in our group found we had dirt where no one could see it. The sticky film didn’t bother anyone but the one who knew it was there. It wasn’t always sin in our lives but could be almost anything that hadn’t come out to the light of the Lord’s love.
One morning when we split into groups, my partner was my good friend Bev. She was the one who had invited me to this group so I not only enjoyed studying in this group of women but enjoyed being with my friend of many years.
Bev shared through tears and sobs that she had never felt loved even as a child and though she was most likely loved, she had a hard time believing that she was worthy. Sinful? No, but very damaging for relationships with others as well as God. Through her searching, she had found a sticky dirty place in her heart that I am sure she was tempted to let go. It would be to painful to think about and even harder to clean up. Who would know? I talked to her a few days ago and though layers of that dirt has been wiped away, she has layers to go. With prayer and the Lord’s help I believe she will find even that spot in her life clean. She will break free!
Maybe you do have sin in your life that you have not given to God. No one knows it, no one can see it but year after year the layers of dirt accumulate. Unlike my dirty place above my cabinets which I can clean, my sin needs the Saviors cleansing! His cleansing that can wash us white as snow.
Perhaps God called you many years ago to do something and you set it aside, telling God “I will do that later”. Has this calling accumulated so much dirt that it looks impossible to rescue? Bring it out in the light and give it to God. He will shine it up like new, maybe this time you will heed his call. Maybe he will give you a new one, made for just this time in your life.
Well, after all this thinking, I decided that even though that sticky place could not be seen by anyone except me, I would clean it. I went over it once rather lightly getting no where but then again with a cleaner. Off the dirty film came and I climbed down knowing that all was clean even the places nobody but me could see.
I still have to figure out that whole “Tree in the Forest” thing!
Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Psalm 51:7
No comments:
Post a Comment