This week the sun came out and, like an exclamation point on the end of a sentence, celebrated the first day of Spring. Temperatures soared near the seventy mark, a rare occurrence for Oregon weather in March. A mere three weeks before much of my home town had been buried in almost two feet of snow. Power outages had left several thousand constituents in the dark and cold.
The sun’s arrival drove away those dark memories. I became inspired to wash windows. There’s something about staring through dirty glass that irritates me. I run to the offending pane, spray it with a liberal dose of ammonia cleaner, and squeegee the surface dry. All of the world gleams again through the clear window.
Often our lives are like that splotchy, dirty glass. Our focus is skewed, our ability to discern tainted. We perceive life with an attitude, rather than with God’s light shining on it.
Isaiah 64:6 teaches us that “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind have taken us away.”
That’s when we need to spend time in God’s Word, cleansing ourselves of the darkness within us and taking time to let his Son shine into our souls.
In Hebrews 4:12 we are told us that God’s Word is “quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
Cleansing is necessary to have a right standing with God. Those who have believed in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, have been forgiven. Christ’s blood on the cross cleanses us just as surely as if God has taken a bottle of ammonia and applied it to our souls, wiping us clean in His sight. Keeping it clear by seeking out our Lord and growing in Him is our responsibility. When was the last time you fell on your knees and sought out your Savior?
Is your soul in need of a good scrubbing?