Cleaning Out or Covering Up

So today I was sitting in my office looking at my desk and how cluttered it was so I began to clean it off, now if you know me I am a streak cleaner, if I start I get into a rhythm and start cleaning everything, so from my desk I moved into my drawer, you know the place where you stuff everything when you are cleaning you desk off. WOW, I guess I hadn't looked in there in a long time because it was about to explode out, while my desk looked ok on the outside, my desk drawer was so unbelievably cluttered that I didn't even know what was in there. And I got to thinking how much this is like my Christian walk. We do a quick clean on the outside so that we are presentable to whoever but the reality is the stuff is still there it is just getting buried deeper and deeper under the mess of sin and guise of religion. I think that it is so easy and so much of our culture to strive and desire the quick fix that we rarely, if ever take the time to deal with what is really under the surface. Then this verse popped into my mind, 1 John 1:9-10- "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us."

How often do we confess, not just with our mouth, but with our heart, and deal with the sin that so easily distracts us from our pursuit of the Holy? I think none of us would say with our mouths that we have not sinned but how many of us live lives of confession and repentance. Today remember He desires to cleanse us, not just on the outside but deep on the inside, take your junk to Him deal with it and give it to Him and strive hard to put it to death and trust that He will move in your life so powerfully that you find yourself closer to Him and desiring Him more then you ever have before.

LOVE GOD LOVE PEOPLE

Trust

Lately the Lord has really been working me over in the area of trust. I have found my thoughts often taken and challenged with the question of who or what my trust is in. What are the things that I maybe even unintentionally found myself clinging to other then the Holy. And the revelation has been startling. How often do I trust in my own understanding, my own way of doing things, my family, politics, etc. I have easily taken what I can see and feel and clung to it. I wonder how many of you would say the same, that Christ, His Word, His commands have become secondary to the pressures and pulls of this world. I hope that this scripture gives you some encouragement to take stock of your soul today and see where you may be off and then work hard to train and discipline your mind to think well on the Gospel.

Psalm 40:1-5-I waited patiently for the Lord and He inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon the rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. BLESSED IS THE MAN WHO MAKE THE LORD HIS TRUST, WHO DOES NOT TURN TO THE PROUD, TO HOSE WHO GO ASTRAY AFTER A LIE! You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds toward us, no can compare with you!!`

This is such an encouragement, though it may take time, and though we will have to wait patiently on Him, He will come, He will hear and He will respond to us. May our trust not be in those things that are fading, those things that fill for a moment and then are gone, but today may we train our minds to trust that the Lord is good and does good, and if you have not may you trust Him with your lives and may your confess with your mouth and believe in your heart and may you be saved.

HE IS GOOD AND HE IS FAITHFUL-

LOVE GOD LOVE PEOPLE

Psalm Encouragement

I hope that this week you would take this Psalm and meditate on it, chew on it, and be encouraged by it:

Psalm 142-

With my voice I cry out to the Lord;
with my voice I plead for mercy to the Lord

I pour out my complaint before Him; I tell my trouble before Him.

When my spirit faints within me, you know my way!
In the path where I walk they have hidden a trap for me.

Look to the right and see: there is none who takes notice of me,
no refuge remains for me, no on cares for my soul.

I cry out to you, O Lord;
I say, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living."

Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low!
Deliver me from my persecutors, for theyare too strong for me!

Bring me out of prison, that I may give thanks to your name!
The righteousness will surround me, for you will deal bountifully with me.


Take these verses to heart this week, Christ is our great refuge that no matter how long we have strayed, or the places we have been He is our refuge and in Him we find our hope.

LOVE GOD LOVE PEOPLE