“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.” Matthew 23:25 (ESV)
Saturdays are usually defined as “me” days especially if it’s a Spring/Summer day. But last week’s Saturday cloudy, rainy weather kept me inside. And since it was Spring and cleaning needed to be the vibe – I spent four hours in my bathroom. Yes, you got it! Four long hours in a small bathroom scouring everything from top to bottom. Reorganizing everything. I ended up with two big bags of trash, exhaustion and one perfectly cleaned bathroom.
Never realized so much dust could cling to my plantation blinds and mold living within the confines of my washing machine. Needless to say, I took extra allergy meds and wore my mask to avoid breathing in all those things I’m allergic to. To be honest, there were many moments when I wanted to stop and skip over the dust on the light globes because no one could see it or skip over cleaning out the parts of the machine where detergent goes. But nothing felt better than walking back in that room and breathing in clean.
Avoidance and busyness found me doing surface cleaning – what was necessary to the visible eye but wow was there a lot under the surface. Find this to be so true about our lives. We do necessary emotional/spiritual maintenance to get by, but often fail to look deep and get under the surface.
Sin especially loves to hibernate under the surface….it’s one of those tricks from the enemy which convinces us we don’t need to go deep. Or worse yet, we settle for an outward false appearance of clean when we know inside our hearts are far from God. And what a lie it is. Blinded by our perceived view of clean, we fail to confess the sins staring us in the face. Our false clean and quick judgement of others depicts a “holier than thou” stance. Nothing could be further from the truth.
When we don’t dig deep and confess sin, it will simply manifest itself in a bigger way. Plus cherished sins create distance in our relationship with God, they serve as pray blockers and hinder our growth. All yuck we don’t want in our lives right?
Nothing is harder and yet feels better than breathing in confession and clean living. So thankful for His forgiveness and grace in moments when “me” unveils the real “flesh me.” Desiring His view of my sins rather than my own – leaving excuses at His feet and walking way forgiven – clean never felt better!
“Father thank You for the incredible gift of grace and forgiveness. Help me to avoid the trap and lies of the enemy convincing me I’m clean enough. Remove the scales from my eyes and help me to dig deep, confess and live clean.”
For His Glory
Janet Martin
TRBC Women’s Life
trbccoffeebreak 
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