I enjoyed a sweet and much needed conversation today with a dear, sweet friend. It seems that we sometimes take turns comparing ourselves to the other and find that we always fall short of the other. I guess we all do that comparing thing every now and again;) It's comforting to know that we struggle with the same issues(misery loves company?). It's even more of a comfort to know that we find our identity in Christ, not in what we have or haven't done. My friend and I seem to have some sin issues to deal with...with our children and with ourselves. What a blessing to be able to share these burdens with one another. (Galatians 6:2). So anyway what does this have to do with the bathroom? I'm beginning to wonder that myself;) Here goes.....
Part of this morning was spent cleaning the bathrooms...I CAN NOT stand a dirty bathroom, I actually like cleaning the bathrooms! Yes....I have issues;) So after getting them cleaned I feel so much better about everything, the bathrooms are clean, at least for a little while. Fast forward a few hours.... someone asks, "why doesn't Noah have any pants on?". Well, that sweet boy almost made it...almost;)
No worries, I just throw a towel over and grab some cleaner while he's washing his hands. Then I realize that my "clean" bathroom wasn't nearly as clean as I thought. So I spray and I wipe and then I get down on my hands and knees to scrub. I had to get on my knees to really get those "dirty" areas. Now this morning most people would've been able to walk into a "clean" bathroom, chances are they wouldn't have looked for all that dirt hiding behind....Isa this starting to make sense? I hope so. You see, my friend and I have both dealt with some big sin issues here lately and speaking for myself those big issues brought to light so many other areas that had been touched by sin. I just couldn't see it. Everything looked good on the surface but underneath was a dirty mess. Those "big" issues have forced me to see and face the "smaller" but still dirty issues lurking underneath.
Now, I said I had to get on my knees to really clean the "mess" in the bathroom and that brings me to close of this post. On my knees.....crying out to God.That is the only way to deal with sin. Sometimes God uses the "big" issues to show us just how much sin there really is in and underneath. Only on our knees can we face it. Only Christ can make us clean.
In Him,
Sandy
HEY go from strength to strength. There are various renderings of these words, but all of them contain the idea of progress.
Our own good
translation of the authorized version is enough for us this morning.
"They go from strength to strength." That is, they grow stronger and
stronger. Usually, if we are walking, we go from strength to weakness;
we start fresh and in good order for our journey, but by-and-by the road
is rough, and the sun is hot, we sit down by the wayside, and then
again painfully pursue our weary way. But the Christian pilgrim having
obtained fresh supplies of grace, is as vigorous after years of toilsome
travel and struggle as when he first set out. He may not be quite so
elate and buoyant, nor perhaps quite so hot and hasty in his zeal as he
once was, but he is much stronger in all that constitutes real power,
and travels, if more slowly, far more surely. Some gray-haired veterans
have been as firm in their grasp of truth, and as zealous in diffusing
it, as they were in their younger days; but, alas, it must be confessed
it is often otherwise, for the love of many waxes cold and iniquity
abounds, but this is their own sin and not the fault of the promise
which still holds good: "The youths shall faint and be weary, and the
young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon the Lord shall
renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they
shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint." Fretful
spirits sit down and trouble themselves about the future. "Alas!" say
they, "we go from affliction to affliction." Very true, O thou of little
faith, but then thou goest from strength to strength also. Thou shalt
never find a bundle of affliction which has not bound up in the midst of
it sufficient grace. God will give the strength of ripe manhood with
the burden allotted to full-grown shoulders.
Y soul
begin this wintry month with thy God. The cold snows and the piercing
winds all remind thee that He keeps His covenant with day and night, and
tend to assure thee that He will also keep that glorious covenant which
He has made with thee in the person of Christ Jesus. He who is true to
His Word in the revolutions of the seasons of this poor sin-polluted
world, will not prove unfaithful in His dealings with His own
well-beloved Son.
